


Counting Down From 40

by AlexOblivion



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Luke and Bodhi, Biggs Darklighter dies, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Jyn/Biggs Darklighter baby, Mostly Fluff, PI Cassian, POV Cassian Andor, Pregnant Jyn, Private Investigators, Rogue One Investigations, Secretary jyn, Slow Burn, background Chirrut and Baze, even the plot is sorta background, protective cassian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2018-10-28 07:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 37,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10827030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexOblivion/pseuds/AlexOblivion
Summary: There was nothing in his tiny company's mission statement that included taking a secretive government contract, helping a former-client-turned-secretary navigate the murky waters of pregnancy, or socializing a reclusive employee. All Cassian wanted when he started Rogue One Investigations was to take small, impersonal jobs that he could walk away from at the end of the day, hopefully with a sense of satisfaction at having made the world a slightly better place.Then Jyn Erso drops into his life like a firecracker with a baby belly, and suddenly the former Special Operations soldier is going domestic. He doesn't even mean to, but there's just something about Jyn...Or the one where the PI plotline takes a total backseat to the Cassian being overprotective of pregnant Jyn, and pregant Jyn wanders around in confusion wondering how the hell she's supposed to have a baby.





	1. 30 Weeks Remaining

**Author's Note:**

> Weeeee! I'm pretty excited about this one, you guys. This is my first foray into the Rogue One fandom, so be gentle. 
> 
> This story is basically written already, so the updates should be fairly regular. I'm hoping for twice weekly, but we'll see how it goes :) I am a bit worried about Cassian and Jyn being out of character, but since I've put them in basically the opposite of a canon universe maybe it works? I dunno, review and let me know what you think! 
> 
> -AO

The first time he met Jyn Erso, she had been bickering with his partner Kay like they had known each other for years. She stood in the middle of their tiny office’s even tinier lobby, her hands bracing her hips like her slightly rounded belly was about to tip her forwards. Her dark hair was pulled out of her face in a messy bun and she glared up at Kay like she was the one that was six and a half feet tall, not him. 

“Why do you need to know why I want him found?” She asked. 

Kay crossed his arms, looking for all the world like an irritated owl as he blinked down at her. “Because we cannot begin to find information on a person unless we know the circumstances surrounding them. Knowing why you want to find him will help inform us as to why he might have left, which we can then use to postulate his likely path of exodus.” 

It would have been a reasonable response, too, if he hadn't infused his words with condescension. Jyn’s eyes narrowed further. 

“I can tell you exactly why he left. Because of this.” She pointed at her stomach. 

Kay looked down. “Your abdomen?” 

Cassian resisted the urge to smack his forehead and their receptionist, a polite mouse of a woman who had started a day ago and probably wouldn't last out the week, sighed. 

“Holy hell, if you're this dense I think I should hire someone else,” Jyn muttered. 

Cassian decided it was time to step in. He stepped out into the lobby with his hand held out to the short woman. 

“Hi, I'm Cassian Andor, the owner of Rogue Investigations. Why don't you step into my office and we can sort out the details?” 

Jyn took his hand warily, her eyes still firmly narrowed. Cassian wondered if she was judging him in association to Kay - it wouldn't be the first time someone had. 

“Jyn Erso,” she said, and headed towards his office without another word. Cassian followed her, slightly off balance from her brusque entrance. He shut the door behind them and Jyn settled into a chair in front of his desk without waiting for him to offer. She sighed when she sat, and patted her stomach absently, as if she didn’t really notice she was doing it. 

Cassian sat down behind his large cherrywood desk and tried to get the pleasantries out of the way. “Can I offer you a coffee or tea?” He asked. (He and Kay had had a lengthy argument over whether it was necessary to offer refreshments to guests, and eventually Cassian had just had to override Kay’s arguments of wasted capital with the one thing the other man didn’t understand - it was polite.) 

“Tea, thanks,” she said, and Cassian noticed that she had a slight accent. British, he thought, though given that English wasn’t his first language he didn’t have a much of an ear for others’ accents. He nodded at her request and paged the receptionist - why couldn’t he remember her name? - to bring some in. Once Jyn was settled with her tea, Cassian got down to business. 

“So Miss Erso, how can we help you?” 

She scowled at the use of her last name. “Just Jyn, thanks. What does that man even do here?” She asked, throwing Cassian off his game. 

“Kay? He’s our data analyst. Good with numbers, not so much with people.” 

“You don’t say,” she snorted. She seemed to suddenly remember his question. “I’m looking for someone.” 

“So I heard.” Cassian tried on a smile, it was not returned. Serious face, then. 

“His name is Biggs Darklighter. He’s a pilot,” she said. 

Cassian wrote the name down, and listed his occupation underneath. “Why do you want to find him?” He asked, though he suspected he knew the answer. 

Jyn again pointed to her stomach and it’s slight bulge, and said, “I’m pregnant. It’s his. He doesn’t know.” 

“So you want to find him and tell him?” 

“Basically. I thought… well he should know, shouldn’t he?” 

Cassian smiled. For a second Jyn looked softer, almost… vulnerable, and he realized just how pretty she was. “Of course,” he said, trying to be conciliatory without sounding pitying. It was a fine line. “Have you contacted his employer? Tried looking for him there?” 

“It’s not quite that simple. He’s a pilot in the Army. They won’t release personnel records, and we didn’t exactly leave on the best terms, so he’s not answering my calls or anything,” Jyn said. Her frown was back in place and she couldn’t quite meet Cassian’s gaze. 

“The Army won’t help you contact him? Usually they can get a partner in touch with their significant other-” But Jyn was shaking her head. To his surprise, her cheeks reddened. 

“It wasn’t… I’m not his significant other. I just met him at a bar and we chatted and - this was a mistake. I shouldn’t have come here.” She levered herself up out of the chair as quickly as she could and Cassian was halfway around the desk to stop her before he even realized what she was doing. 

“No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pried. We can help you find him, don’t worry. I have some contacts in the Army that can help,” he said. 

Jyn paused. “Really?” 

Cassian nodded. “I’m ex-military. I have a few friends still in who owe me a favor. We’ll find him.” 

Jyn sagged back into the chair. “Good. God, I fucking hate asking for help,” she said, and her sudden expletive surprised a snort of laughter out of Cassian. “Pregnancy hormones really mess with your head, you know.” 

Cassian grinned, the smile feeling more natural than anything he had worn in a while. Too long, if he was being honest. “I don’t really know.” Jyn glared at him, and he put his hands up in surrender. “I’ll take your word for it though.” 

That got a slight upturn of the corners of her mouth and he counted that as a win, though he knew his next questions wouldn’t gain him any favors. 

“I do need to ask you some questions though. My contacts are going to need a bit more to go on than just a pilot in the Army.” 

Jyn sighed and settled into her chair. “I know. Alright, let’s get this over with.”

* 

It took Cassian approximately three days to even figure out what unit Biggs Darklighter served in. As it turned out, the man was Special Ops and more than a bit difficult to trace, but Cassian had some tricks up his sleeves. He had to call in all the favors he had left in the military, but he had left the Forces with a stellar record and several commendations, so they were willing to do him a bit of a service in return. When he finally got in contact with one of his former associates in Special Ops, Skywalker wasn’t able to tell him much. 

Luke knew Biggs, had flown with him on several occasions, but they weren’t in the same unit and as a rule Spec Ops teams didn’t share mission briefings. He knew Biggs was deployed at the moment, but that was all he had. Cassian knew if Darklighter was deployed, he wouldn’t get anything more out of the Army until the man landed back stateside or the mission ended. 

Jyn was, as he had expected, not thrilled by the news. She ploughed into the office and yelled at him for a good half hour before he managed to calm her with a combination of tea and chocolate (pregnancy hormones were wonderful), and then it was another half hour before he could get her to see reason. Eventually, though, she agreed to wait until Skywalker contacted them again to let them know that Biggs was back in contact. 

Neither of them had expected it to take so long, though. It was nearly a month before Bodhi Rook knocked on Cassian’s door, face carefully blank. Bodhi was the other private investigator that Cassian employed, and for all his nervousness he was quite good at his job. He was also more than a little interested in Cassian’s old friend Luke Skywalker, which explained his carefully neutral expression as he said, “Luke’s here, Cassian.” 

“He's here?” Cassian asked. In the world of the military, a personal visit was never good. 

“Yeah. In the lobby.” 

Sure enough, Luke Skywalker stood in the tiny lobby of Rogue Investigations, looking for all the world like a dog who had stolen a cookie. He was in uniform and his bright blue eyes tracked Cassian as he walked in to sit across from him. Cassian knew what he was going to say long before he said it. 

“Captain Andor, it's good to see you,” Luke said, standing up to shake Cassian’s hand. 

“Just Andor now,” Cassian replied. 

“Yeah, I guess. How've you been?” But Luke hadn't come in for small talk and neither of them enjoyed making it, so Cassian cut to the chase. 

“Luke, as much as I appreciate the visit-” 

“Darklighter’s dead, Cassian,” Luke blurted. Cassian rocked back in his chair. “He died on a mission in Africa. I don't have any details, it's all classified, but he’s dead.” 

Cassian wiped a hand across his mouth, his mind going a mile a minute. How the hell was he supposed to tell Jyn this? Then he noticed the look on Luke’s face. 

“I'm sorry Luke, did you know him well?” 

“We grew up together,” Luke said. He convinced me to join the army.” 

“Shit.” They were military. There wasn't much else to say.

“So the girlfriend-” 

“Not really girlfriend,” Cassian interrupted. For some reason the distinction was important. “I'll tell her.” 

Luke nodded, distracted by something behind Cassian. A second later Bodhi passed into cassian’s range of vision and went into his office with a nod to Luke. Cassian was interested to see a slight blush on the officer’s cheeks when he turned around, and he filed that information away for later. 

“I should get going then,” Luke said, standing and offering Cassian a hand to shake. Cassian stood with him. 

“Let's grab drinks or something soon, eh?” Luke suggested. 

“Will do.” 

“Good luck with the girl - well, with her.” 

Cassian nodded and Luke left the office, leaving Cassian to figure out how the hell he was going to tell Jyn that her baby’s father was dead.


	2. 26 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn can't decide how to feel, Senator Mothma has no feelings, and Cassian feels sort of bemused.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the awesome responses to the story so far! I've gotta say, I rewrote this chapter a couple times and am not quite happy with it, as I can see it leading to the story becoming somewhat of a behemoth... Well, we'll see how it goes! Thanks for sticking with me!   
> -AO

In truth, she took it both better and worse than he expected. He had invited her down to his office so that if she had a breakdown it wasn't in public, but she actually just sat there with her hands over her mouth, green eyes wide and staring. Her belly was larger now, quite obviously a pregnancy belly but not quite in the realm of impediment just yet. 

“Fuck,” she said. Cassian stayed quiet. Jyn pushed herself to her feet and paced his office. 

“What the fuck am I going to do now? I don't know the first thing about kids and… Fuck.” 

For the first time Cassian realized he hasn't actually asked her what her gameplan was once he found Biggs. 

“Were you hoping he was going to take the baby?” Cassian asked. 

Jyn reared back and Cassian felt an immediate wave of relief. He wasn't sure why he felt it, but he knew he would have been disappointed if she had said otherwise. 

“No! Of course not. But it would have been nice to have help. And… I know what it's like to grow up without a father,” she said. She sat down abruptly. 

“Fuck. Why am I telling you this? Fucking pregnancy hormones, I swear.” 

Cassian smiled slightly. “It seems like a roller coaster.” 

“You have no idea.” They sat in silence for a long moment before Jyn leveraged herself upright and sighed the heavy sigh of someone with far too much weight on her shoulders. She squared herself up and tried her best to paste a calm expression onto her face. It didn’t work. 

“Well, I won't take up more of your time. Thank you, Mr. Andor.” 

“Cassian,” he found himself saying. Jyn looked back at him and nodded. 

“Thanks Cassian.” She smiled a small, lost smile and Cassian wished there was something more he could do for her. But he had done what she asked and now she was walking out the door. 

Then Jyn paused. “What happened to your secretary?” She called back to him. 

Cassian followed her to the doorway to the lobby. “She quit. She said Kay makes her working environment too difficult so she left.” Jyn mouth gaped open, and she looked like she was halfway between a scowl and a laugh. 

“She's the second one this month,” Cassian added, and Jyn grinned, as he had thought - hoped - she might. It wasn’t much of a smile, just a small lilt of the edges of her lips, but it was something. 

“Second one? Sounds like it might be a problem with your analyst.” 

“Oh it's definitely a problem with the analyst,” Casian agreed, “I just can't find anyone who can stand up to him.” 

Her face smoothed again into the pensive look she was trying so hard to suppress. Once again Cassian wished there was something more he could do for her. “Just need someone with a little more backbone,” she said. 

He nodded and opened the door for her. “Seems that that’s hard to come by. Goodbye, Miss Erso. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more for you.” 

Her eyes met his for the first time since he had told her Biggs was dead. She looked… lost, and small. Cassian could count on one hand the number of encounters he had had with Jyn Erso, but in none of them would he say that she seemed as small as she was. Not until just then. 

“There’s nothing more you could have done. Thanks, Cassian. Bye.” 

And as Jyn Erso walked out of his office, a tall, elegant woman walked in. She barely spared a glance at Jyn as she went by, and Cassian had to tear his eyes away from her retreating form to look at this potential new client. 

“Hello. I’m looking for Captain Andor?” the tall woman inquired.

“That would be me, though I’m not a Captain anymore. Senator Mothma, isn’t it?” He asked, recognizing her from the news. 

She nodded and they shook hands. She had dry, un-calloused palms, he noted, and it fit the image of the Senator that he had seen on TV. 

“I need to talk to you about a rather delicate matter if you please, Mr. Andor,” she said, and Cassian motioned towards his office. 

“Of course.” 

In his office, Senator Mon Mothma sat down like she were made of glass and his office was full of rather large, heavy objects swinging haphazardly her way. Cassian took his seat behind his desk and opened his notepad. 

“How can I help you, Senator?” 

Mothma hesitated before she spoke, and when she did her words sounded very carefully considered. “As I understand it, Mr. Andor, you used to specialize in intelligence for the military?” 

Cassian blinked. She had looked him up. “Yes ma’am, I did.” 

“And you left the military because…?” 

“I was tired. I joined young and I thought I should get out before I couldn’t.” 

The Senator was difficult to read. He wasn’t sure that she was sold on his reasoning, but she seemed to accept it nonetheless. 

“Regardless, Captain, by all accounts you were one of the finest intelligence officers in Special Operations. I am hopeful that you can put those skills to use on my behalf. I will, of course, need to retain your entire staff, and I will need everyone in this company to sign non-disclosure agreements.” Mothma watched his face carefully throughout her speech, looking he thought for signs that he wouldn’t agree to her terms. 

If Cassian hadn’t been intrigued before, he was now. “What exactly are we looking for, Senator?” He asked. 

“I won’t be able to give you all the details until you sign the nondisclosure forms, but suffice to say that I require a very discreet, very delicate investigation of a colleague of mine. I would not ask if it didn’t concern the wellbeing of the nation as a whole, but I must be sure that you will be able to investigate this quietly,” she said. 

Cassian nodded slowly, thinking it through. If he took this job, they would be on retainer for the Senator for an indeterminate amount of time, which meant financial stability. They could really use financial stability. If they performed well, they would most likely get other business from politicians and people connected to Mothma, which would mean ongoing stability for their little company. On the other hand, Cassian had left the military because he didn’t like doing the bidding of higher-ups that never got their hands dirty, and this job had that same feeling to it. He huffed a tiny sigh. 

“We’ll do it. If you send the nondisclosure agreements over, I’ll discuss them with my staff and make sure we’re all on the same page,” he said. Mothma inclined her head gracefully and rose, offering Cassian a hand as she went. 

“Excellent. I appreciate your services, Captain, and I’m sure we’ll be speaking soon. I’ll have my assistant send over the documents you’ll require.” And with that she swept out of his office. Cassian ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Now all he had to do was tell the rest of his staff. 

As if summoned by the mere thought that Cassian might not want to see them right now, he looked up to see both of the other members of Rogue Investigations peering in the doorway. Kay looked as suspicious as he always did, head and shoulders above Bodhi, who looked mildly interested.

“What did the Senator want?” Kay asked, tactless as usual. 

Cassian sighed. No reason to keep it from them now. “She wants to put us on retainer for an extended case. Investigating another Senator. But we’d have to sign nondisclosure agreements.” 

The others looked at each other, then back at him. “Do we know who? Or why?” Bodhi asked. 

“Not yet. Her office is going to send over the documents once we sign the nondisclosure forms.” 

“But she’s going to keep us on retainer?” Kay asked. 

“Yes.” Cassian watched Kay’s face. He was morally averse to politics, he said, as it involved a good bit of lying and covering things up, which went against Kay’s fundamental nature. He had never learned to hide anything, had never learned the value of secrets, so he took it as offensive that other people couldn’t be as straightforward as he was - he did not, however, seem to notice when the secrets he was so fond of spilling hurt or upset people. 

“I think we should do it then,” Kay said, “We need the money.” 

Bodhi hummed agreement. It wasn’t that Rogue One was short on cash, just that the stability a retainer position offered was tough to pass up, especially when considering the fluctuating nature of their work. 

“I agree. Wrap up your other cases, I think this one is going to monopolize our time.”


	3. 25 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which coffee is made, coffee is drunk, and Jyn determines she would prefer not to give birth on a farm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in posting this, folks, this week has been insanely busy. If it's any consolation, this is a long chapter!

If Cassian were honest, he spent far too much money at his favorite coffee shop, just a block away from his office and tucked between a used bookstore and a pawn shop. It wasn’t exactly a nice neighborhood, but they made excellent coffee and they weren’t an enormous franchise. Ever since opening his own small business, Cassian had had an affinity for other struggling small companies. He tried to support them whenever he could, hence the jog down the block for coffee and a sandwich at lunch time. It was also the best place to sit and mull over the facts of a stubborn case without Bodhi’s anxious face or Kay’s losing distracting him. 

Today, about a week after Jyn had walked out of his office and Cassian had started trying to put her out of his mind - with varying levels of success - he walked into his usual coffee shop and waved at the owners, who were mixing drinks and taking money, respectively. He was more than ready to sit down with an espresso and sort through the Senator’s case, which had been a stumper since the beginning, but he turned around to go sit in his usual booth and there she was. All plans of working through lunch left his head. 

She was sitting at a booth in the corner wearing a skirt and blouse combo that made her look like a lawyer and looking quietly thoughtful. She hadn’t seen him yet, and so he took the opportunity to stare at her. From here he couldn’t see any of that spark that seemed to light her from within, that fire that made her seem larger than life when she walked into his office. He wondered if the news about Biggs had dulled that flame at all and that was why he couldn’t see it. He stared at her a bit more, trying to figure her out. 

She caught him. Her head turned abruptly and then her eyes were meeting his, and Cassian was well and truly caught. 

“Cassian?” She asked. He nodded and tried on a smile. It seemed too big, too genuine for someone who was supposed to be a work contact. 

“Jyn,” he said back. She looked past him to the counter and raised her eyebrows. He turned and found the owner of the shop, a tall man with dreadlocked black hair and an attitude that said he was more than familiar with breaking the skulls of his enemies, called Baze, holding out his coffee. The look on his face said it had been more than a second. 

Cassian took the drink, paid Baze’s counterpart Chirrut with a generous tip, and turned back around. His gaze immediately met Jyn’s. One corner of her mouth lifted up and she pointed at the seat across from her in the booth, indicating to him with a nod. He slid in across from her, only about half his brain wondering what the hell he was doing there. Only half was fine, right? 

“How are you?” He asked, then winced at the question. Of course she wasn’t alright, she had just lost the father of her baby. What a question. 

“Okay, actually,” she said. He glanced up at her. 

“Really. I didn’t… Biggs was a friend of a friend. Seemed nice enough, but none of this was supposed to happen.” She gestured at her belly, which was starting to show a definitive baby bump. 

Cassian nodded, ready to switch the conversation back to safer topics, but Jyn ploughed on. From the set of her shoulders and the way she talked with her eyes directed at the table, he thought maybe she hadn’t had anyone to tell this to. He shouldn’t be so invested in her, his brain reminded him, but - 

“It was a stupid mistake. I thought I was covered but as it turns out…” 

He cleared his throat. “You don't have to explain anything to me,” he said. 

She looked up at him then, really looked. He stared back, drawn into her gaze. 

“There's been a lot of judgement,” she said. 

Cassian waved as if he could banish those people with a flick of his wrist. “Fuck those people,” he said, his expletives startling a chuckle out of her. She sighed. 

“I’ll be alright, anyways. I always am.” She smiled that crooked smile again. 

Cassian would have given anything just to see an actual smile on her face. “Well if you ever need anything…” he volunteered. She looked thoughtful, then grinned. 

“How are you at footrubs?” She asked, and he choked on his coffee. From the giggles that followed, he surmised that that had been her intention. 

“Terrible. Terrible at foot rubs,” he replied, making her giggle a little more. She stopped abruptly into one laugh though, and her face fell. He thought she was probably thinking about Biggs, about why she had survived life and made it here and he hadn’t. 

He offered her a distraction. “So what are you doing here?” 

She took his cue, visibly working to shrug off the darkness that lay heavy on her shoulders. “The owners are good friends of mine,” she said, nodding at the dreadlocked man. 

“Baze and Chirrut?” He knew them, of course. He had been coming for coffee here for two years, and he had never seen her. 

“Yeah,” she said, “since I was little. Plus my work is just down the street, so it's not so far to go.” 

This led into a conversation about her job, which she was oddly elusive about, and a comparison of their employers. She mentioned a man named Saw more than once when talking about her work, making Cassian's fingers itch with the desire to confirm if she was talking about Saw Gerrera, the notorious construction mogul with a habit of working outside the law and a penchant for only renting his apartment buildings to low income of struggling people. Most of the city was divided - some saw him as a hero, a Robin Hood of social housing, and some saw him as a vigilante. Cassian waffled between the two. He didn't press Jyn for details though, afraid she'd shut down. 

They talked until Cassian realized it was far past time for him to return to work, and then as he was gathering his things and trying to think of a way to ask her if they could do this again, she cleared her throat. She was doing that thing where she spoke down to the table, her eyes glued to the black wood, but he was starting to gather that that was just her way of dealing with vulnerability. 

“Your lunch usually at this time?” She asked, and he had to fight off a grin that promised to be eerily large. 

“Yeah, yours?”

She nodded. 

“Okay, well see you around then?” He asked, and she nodded again, her eyes flicking up to meet his and a small smile lifting the edges of her lips. 

“Good. Alright.” Cassian recycled his cup and left the cafe before his mouth could get him in any further trouble - it sounded like it was about to ramble, and that would not have been good. He waited until he was clear of the place before he let himself smile widely enough that it hurt his face. 

*

Though the previous day’s lunch encounter with Jyn felt like a surreal dream, Cassian went back to Whill Coffee the following day, and there she was. She was in a suit this time, looking for all the world like a business lady at a meeting. She smiled at him when he showed up, and he smiled back. Not a dream then. 

*

They had been going for lunch together for two weeks before Cassian found out that Jyn didn’t have a car. As soon as he heard that, his mind began replaying conversations they had had over food about all the things she had to do after work - get groceries, get across the city to prenatal appointments, and so on - and he had wondered how a tiny woman whose four-month pregnancy belly was already giving her aches managed all that. 

Jyn had yet to notice his discomfiture, though, and she was rambling on about the doctor’s appointment she had to get to after work and which bus she should take. 

Cassian shook himself out of his shock when she mentioned that she would have to transfer buses at least twice on her way there. 

“I’ll drive you,” he said. 

Jyn stopped talking. “What?” 

“I’ll drive you.” He repeated it with more conviction, and he hurried to explain when he saw the argument brewing on Jyn’s face. She was not the type of person to accept favors lightly, and she hated owing people. Cassian wouldn’t see it as owing, but she would. 

“It just makes sense. Your doctor is on my way home anyways, and it’ll save you a trip. Alright?” 

Her expression stayed sour but she nodded, and Cassian counted that as a small victory. “Fine,” she said, and he said nothing. He was learning, slowly, that it was better to let Jyn make a concession to her self-against-the-world posture without commenting on it. Commenting on it just made her more defensive. 

“What time is your appointment?” He asked. 

“Four. Fuck, I was going to ask Saw if I could leave early, but I sort of… forgot.” 

He grinned at her and in tune they chimed “Fucking pregnancy brain.” Jyn laughed and Cassian would have done a lot of things just to hear that sound. He hadn't really asked her about Saw yet, but he had looked it up. They worked together, though he had yet to find a job description for her. He still wasn't quite sure how far he got to push on these things, so he just hadn't. 

“Will he have an issue with it?” He asked. 

Jyn shrugged. “No, should be fine. He just likes a bit of notice and I don't usually drop the ball.” 

“Alright well text me when you're ready and I'll come grab you?” He asked. It was a careful play, both because she didn't talk about her work and he didn't have her number. 

“I'll stop by your office, if that's alright,” she said, “but I'll text when I'm on the way. Give me your phone.” 

*

The rest of the day passed smoothly enough, with everyone in the office working on Senator Mothma’s case. They had sent back their nondisclosure forms promptly and in return received the case files, which explicitly explained why this case needed secrecy. Mothma suspected a fellow Senator of planning to overthrow the government, though she wasn’t sure how. She wrote in her case files that she thought perhaps it would be a soft coup, where the Senator slowly gained power and just refused to let it go. It would be insidious and difficult to stop. She just wasn’t sure that that was what was happening, and she needed Cassian’s people to help her find out. 

Cassian, on the other hand, was not at all sure how to go about doing that. This felt a lot more like spy work than he was comfortable with, though he could see why Mothma had trusted it to them instead of a federal intelligence agency. He just wasn’t sure how two investigators and the least social person on the planet could infiltrate the country’s highest circles of power and parse what was happening behind the scenes. 

So he started where he always started - at the bottom. Bodhi was out interviewing and making connections with anyone who worked for the Senator in question, trying to find some sort of in with the staff. If the Senator had anything to hide, there was a good chance his staff knew what it was. One thing Cassian had noticed throughout his career was how little powerful people thought of the people surrounding them, how surprised they always were when it was the housekeeper or the accountant who gave them up in the end. People like the Senator never even considered that the help were capable humans, let alone considered that they might turn on them. It was his thought that perhaps he or Bodhi could find a way in through the service staff, but so far that was a work in progress. 

In the meantime, Kay was analyzing the data that Mothma had sent over before he started off on his mad internet quest for information, and Cassian was trying to ascertain the details of the Senator’s connections. 

He was so involved in this process that he didn’t notice the time, and when Jyn eventually stuck her head into his office to get him to look up from his screens he was more than a bit startled. 

“Um, hey Cassian?” That brought his head up. He had never heard Jyn be timid before. She was dressed in her coat and had her bag over her shoulder. He glanced at the time and realized they were running behind. 

“Shit, sorry!” He called. “I just need to lock up!” He scrambled to his feet and hurriedly shut his computer down for the night. He grabbed his suit jacket off the back of his chair, felt his pockets for his keys, wallet and phone, and then dashed out to the lobby. 

“Let’s go,” he said to her. She smiled a tight little smile at him and for the first time Cassian realized that Jyn might be nervous. 

In his car, Jyn asked him some inane questions about his current cases that Cassian tried to answer without breaking his nondisclosure clause - the chatter seemed to help. Her hand lay casually on the armrest of her seat, and as they got closer and closer to her doctor’s office he could see her knuckles get whiter. Cassian was a bit surprised - he had had Jyn pegged as the type of person who made an obstinate point of overcoming all obstacles without letting on that it was difficult for her. He tried to keep her distracted, but the closer they got the quieter she became. By the time they had reached the office she was silent, staring out the window. 

Cassian pulled up in front of her doctor’s office. “Here we are,” he said, “I’ll wait out here until you’re done.” 

That brought Jyn’s head around to stare at him with wide eyes. “Why?” She asked. 

“I thought I’d give you a ride home, too,” he said. 

Jyn’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t have to.” 

“I know,” he said. They stared at each other for a moment. Cassian could almost see the gears turning in her head, weighing his motives. 

“You could come in,” she said finally, and it was his turn to be surprised.

“Okay,” he agreed after a moment of quiet. He wasn’t sure why, but something was telling him it was better not to push her on this, ask her why she wanted him to come in, but rather just to go with it. He felt a bit like Jyn was starting to trust him, and for some reason (that he wasn’t quite ready to put words to) he wanted her to trust him. 

He parked the car and followed Jyn’s lead into the office without a word. She checked in and they sat in the waiting room. Cassian pretended not to notice how many times Jyn wiped her palms on her nice pants, pants she had started to complain were too tight and would soon be relegated to the realms of not-pregnancy-friendly clothes. The office was nice enough, covered in informational posters about babies and pregnancy and full of fake potted plants, but there wasn’t much in the way of distractions. So Cassian decided to go out on a branch. 

“My mother had me on a farm,” he said. Jyn looked up at him, her fingers tangled in the edge of the blazer she was currently twisting between her hands. 

“She did,” he said in confirmation. He took a deep breath and continued when Jyn’s eyes stayed on him. He didn’t like talking about his past, didn’t like talking about his family, and didn’t like giving people reason to pity him. But Jyn needed something to distract her, so here he was. 

“She couldn’t get to the midwife in time, so she had me at our family’s farm. My dad was terrified.” Suddenly he remembered where this story was going and hoped to all hell that the doctor would call Jyn before he got to the end of it. 

“How did she…?” Jyn whispered, eyes trained on his face. 

“With great difficulty, my dad always said. He brought her towels and tried to help, but he didn’t know how to deliver a baby.” 

“But you made it,” Jyn said. 

“I made it.” He tensed. He could sense the question coming next. 

“Jyn Erso?” The receptionist called, and he let out a brief expulsion of relief. 

“I’ll wait here?” He asked, though he knew - and he suspected she was starting to figure out - that he would come in if she asked him to. He would do a lot of things because she asked him to. It was an alarming realization. 

“Yeah, okay,” she said. She disappeared down the hall and Cassian settled in to wait. Some minor god of luck must have been on his side when the receptionist had called her name, saving him from having to tell the end of the story. His mother had died giving birth to him. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing that would calm a nervous new mother. 

Jyn’s appointment didn’t take too long, and when she came back out to collect him from the waiting room she seemed much more relaxed. 

“All good?” He asked her as they made their way back out to the car. 

“Yeah,” she said, “Baby’s heart’s beating like a fucking drum. Tough little thing.” She seemed proud and Cassian smiled at her. 

“Makes sense,” he said. She glanced over at him, wary once again, and he wondered what in her past had made her afraid of humor and kindness. 

“I mean, I think it’s first word is probably going to be ‘fuck,’ but what can you do?” 

She started to glare but couldn’t keep it up, breaking out into a giggle instead. “Oh god, what if it is?” 

Cassian opened the car door for her and she didn’t even protest. “Then you tell it to smarten the fuck up and say ‘Mama’ like a good baby.” 

He shut the car door to more laughter.


	4. 22 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn uses groceries as battering rams, Cassian is content to follow, and the fetus is fiesty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uggggh life. Gets in the way, doesn't it. I have hit major writers' block with Chapter 5, which in rereading I don't really like. So I`m trying to combat that, but we`ll see how long it takes me! Next update will hopefully be Thursday. 
> 
> \- AO

The first time he saw Jyn’s apartment he was trailing behind her while she carried an impressive amount of groceries. He had tried to take some from her, but Jyn had growled - actually growled - at him and told him she could take care of her fucking self. She was one of those who thought two trips to the car for groceries meant that her bloodline was weak, so she stacked the bags onto her arms like she was a walking coat rack and then just ploughed her way to the door, a ship under sail. He was about to get back into his car and leave her to her own devices - he knew from experience now what would happen if he followed her up to her apartment under the pretense of, gasp, thinking he should get the door for her - when she looked back over her shoulder and yelled, “Coffee?” 

He took that as an invitation and wandered after her, admiring the way she used her bags like battering rams to flatten unsuspecting neighbours against the walls. She gave negative fucks, and he followed in her wake like a spectator. 

But she let him get the door for her. 

Jyn walked into her apartment, dumped her groceries on the floor, put her hands on her hips, and smirked up at Cassian. 

“See?” She asked. “Told you.” 

To which he simply raised his eyebrows. He’d let her have this one. Then Jyn seemed to realize that he was in her apartment, and her expression shut down like someone had pulled the curtains. She became tense, and he wondered how long it had been since she had had visitors. Judging from the take out container on the counter and the spread of clothes tossed haphazardly over the chair with it’s back to the doorway, he figured it might have been a while. 

Jyn dug through her groceries until she found the bottle of vitamin water, popped the lid off, and sat down at one of the stools at her kitchen island. She followed his gaze to her living room and its state of disarray. 

“I would do that frantic ‘Oh shit I’ve got company’ thing where I run around and pick things up, but I’m not exactly built for running at the moment,” she said, gesturing to her ever growing stomach. 

Cassian grinned a lopsided grin. She was right. She was only about five months along, and already he could tell her belly by the end would be disproportionately large. It didn’t help that she was tiny. 

“I was actually thinking that you have a nice place,” he said. It was true; from what he could see of her apartment it was fairly large and felt larger due to the open concept. 

“Thanks,” she said, though her expression hadn’t opened up any, “Baze and Chirrut actually own the building so they gave me first crack at picking an apartment.” 

“Really?” He asked. He had been acquainted with the owners of Whill Cafe for a few years now and he had had no idea. Not that he had really made an effort to get to know them. Cassian frowned. He was kind of shit at making friends. 

“Yeah. They're sort of… overprotective. I've known them forever,” Jyn said by way of explanation. 

“Were they friends of your parents or something?” He asked, trying to make the link between the older couple and her. 

Jyn frowned and stared into space. Cassian could almost see her debating how much to tell him, once again questioning his motives. 

“My parents are… Well my mom is dead,” she said, and his heart twisted for her. “I don't know where my dad is. Saw raised me.” 

Huh. Well that was a twist to her relationship with Saw Gerrera that he hadn't seen coming. Cassian tried to think of something to say, something comforting that didn't seem trite. 

“I met Baze and Chirrut in grad school. Chirrut was guest lecturing for a philosophy class I took, and I stayed after to ask questions.” Her smile said the rest was history. 

He nodded and they sat in silence for a moment. He knew how much sharing all that must have cost her, and as much as he wanted to ask questions he let her be. Jyn shared in her own time. Jyn poked at one of the grocery bags with her foot, as if she meant to start unpacking it, and Cassian wasn’t sure exactly what to do now. Just as the silence had stretched on too long and he thought he should probably leave, Jyn spoke. 

“I have an ultrasound next week,” she said, though she wouldn’t look up at him so the statement was directed more or less at the floor. 

Cassian waited. He was starting to learn that Jyn had to fight her way through layers of defenses in order to get words like that out, and sometimes you just had to wait for her. Though being in her apartment seemed to help, as if she had made the decision to let him in both literally and figuratively, so she might as well. 

“They want to know if I want to know the baby’s gender.” 

He whistled. No wonder this was weighing on her. “Do you?” He asked. 

“I don’t know. Kind of? It would be nice not to call it an it.” 

“But…” 

“But… don’t laugh, but knowing kind of makes it real.” Jyn glanced at him from under her eyelashes.

He couldn’t help it, he laughed. On an impulse that he later realized should probably have ended in his untimely demise, he reached over and tapped her baby bump with one finger. 

“It’s kind of already real, Jyn,” he said. 

She gasped, eyes much wider than they should have been from one casual touch, and Cassian panicked, sure he had made a fatal error. 

“Do that again!” Jyn demanded. Cassian felt like his world had gone a little sideways. This was not at all the reaction he was expecting.

“What?” 

“The baby kicked when you - do it again!” Jyn grabbed his hand and hauled it, and him, towards her. He went along and gently tapped her bump again. 

“It kicked again! Holy shit, I’ve been invaded by an alien. Hey little buddy,” Jyn said, leaning over and addressing her bump directly. 

Cassian had to bite his lip not to mutter “Aw.” Jyn talking to her belly was quite possibly the sweetest thing he had ever seen. Not that he would ever indicate that to her. Without her having to ask he tapped her again, and she laughed a laugh so bereft of the usual sarcasm or bitterness he was used to that he had to laugh with her. 

“Feel this!” She said, and hauled him forward further so she could press his palm to her stomach over her shirt. 

Cassian waited, painfully aware of how close his body was to hers and how warm her skin was even though the thin fabric of her shirt. 

Then the baby kicked and he forgot everything else. 

“Dios mio,” he muttered, his eyes going wide. He glanced down the few inches to meet Jyn’s gaze. She was grinning wide, looking slightly terrified and mostly excited. She was also only a couple inches from his face. If he leaned forward just slightly… Cassian blinked. What the hell was he thinking? 

The baby kicked again, Jyn’s flesh rippling with the onslaught of the tiny human. Cassian laughed. 

“He’s upset, eh? Don’t like it when I poke your mama, bebe?” 

Jyn chuckled. “Maybe he’s just grumpy,” she suggested. 

“That would make sense. Takes after you,” he teased, and he was rewarded with a punch to the shoulder. 

“Hey! Also, it could be a girl, you know.” 

Cassian leaned back out of range, trying his damndest to ignore how cold his palm felt now that it was off her skin. “Nah, if it was your girl it would be much more angry. Definitely a boy.” 

He was quick enough to dodge Jyn’s second punch, but wasn’t quite prepared for the tenacity with which she pursued him. She chased him around her kitchen island until she was gasping for breath and holding her stomach, her eyes alight with laughter and more than a little bit perturbed by her lack of stamina. 

“Damn kid is weighing me down,” she said by way of excuse when she finally gave in and sat down on the island stool again. 

Cassian didn’t comment, just grinned, and started unpacking her groceries. Jyn tensed but relaxed and let him a lot faster than she would have even a week or two ago, and he wondered how much of that was due to her being tired and how much was due to her beginning to accept that they were actually friends. 

Jyn directed him around the kitchen to put things in their proper places until the bags were empty, then offered him a beer from a stash above her fridge. She watched him open it with clear longing.

"Only... four more? Five more months until I get to drink beer again," she said wistfully. 

Cassian cleared his throat. "Um, Jyn? I don't think you get to drink beer even after the baby is born. Not if you're planning to breastfeed." 

His brain kicked back in then and reminded him that he probably didn't want to talk to Jyn about her breasts. She definitely wouldn't want to talk to him about her breasts, and he definitely didn't want to have that conversation in his memory banks. Friends. They were friends. 

"I haven't decided yet. I'm pretty sure Saw will kill me if I don't, but it sounds horrible. Like really uncomfortable. Actually, come to think of it most things about actually having the baby sound really uncomfortable." 

Cassian took another sip of the beer and tried to decide where to start. "Saw will kill you?" He asked, going for the safest part. 

"Yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "He has no biological kids and when he got me I was nine, so he has no idea how to deal with babies. He's decided the best way to make up for that is to read every parenting book available and text me the summaries. I don't think he thinks I'll read them myself." 

He snorted. "Would you?" 

She threw the lid of her vitamin water at him. "I might!" She relented under his stare remarkably quickly. "Okay, maybe not. I'm busy, alright? And I have Google." 

Cassian figured it was safest to leave it at that, though part of his brain was reveling in the fact that so far in their conversation Jyn hadn't shut down or become angry. Maybe she was getting used to this whole "friends" thing too. 

"So are you worried about actually having the baby?" He asked. 

Jyn sighed and looked down. It seemed he had spoken too soon. "Well... a little. Is that terrible?" 

For a split second he longed to go around the island and hug her, but he knew that she wouldn't see that as anything other than pity and pity would make her avoid him faster than if he'd tried to tell her what to do. "No, it's not. I think it's pretty normal to be a little afraid," he said instead, and she looked back up at him. 

"I hope so. I'm... I'm terrified, Cassian." 

She didn't say his name often, and he didn't like to recognize that he liked it when she did. He tried to think of something comforting to say, but he didn't exactly have a lot of experience in the realm of taking care of babies either, and he definitely didn't have experience in making people feel better. It was kind of the antithesis of his collected life experience, actually. 

His phone saved him by beeping the tone that meant he had a new text message. It was from Bodhi, and it was urgent. 

"Shit," he sighed, and chugged the last bit of his beer. 

"Work?" She asked. 

"Yeah." 

She didn't press, and when he looked at her he could see it wasn't from lack of curiosity. It occurred to him then that Jyn might actually be being just as careful with him as he was with her. That was a thought he didn't want to go into at the moment, so he pushed it out of his mind. He wasn't fragile; he didn't need her to be careful with him. The rest of his brain, the rational part that seemed to take a backseat when he was with her, laughed at that thought. Of course he did. He was not what one would call a well adjusted human. 

"One of my investigators, Bodhi, found something on a case we've been working. He says it's urgent," he said by way of explanation, and Jyn nodded. 

"We still on for tomorrow?" She asked as he put his shoes on. He knew she meant lunch. 

"Yep, I'll be there." He tucked his coat over his shoulder and stopped with one hand on the doorknob. 

"Jyn? I'll make you a bet," he said, casually, as if it weren't sending his heart racing. She raised her eyebrows at him. 

"I bet the baby's a boy. Get the ultrasound or not, but whenever you find out, I bet the baby's a boy." 

She looked intrigued. "Alright... If you win?" 

He bit his lip. This was going out on a limb of a whole new kind. "I haven't decided yet. You want to take the bet?" 

She hesitated, but she was too intrigued and too competitive not to. "Sure. Feels like a girl anyways. What do I get if I win?" 

Cassian grinned. "Whatever you want." 

He opened the door and left before he could register the look on her face or think about exactly what he was offering. Friends. They were friends. Right?


	5. 22 Weeks Remaining, Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Bodhi has information, Cassian gains said information, and Jyn divulges more information. Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a shorty, sorry! My life right now is a bit of a gong show - finishing my teaching degree, applying for jobs, getting all my stuff together for a series of events this summer... ugh. So yeah, writing has been a bit of a backburner thing. I will make it up to you though with a mess of a Chapter 6, so stay tuned! 
> 
> \- AO

As far as Cassian could tell, Bodhi’s information was important but frustratingly it was not urgent. He was standing in the middle of the office even though it was well past when he should have gone home, and he was staring at their one blank wall like a man transfixed. A stack of documents sat on their empty secretary’s desk, and Bodhi held a page in his hand while he thought through whatever trail he was on. He barely noticed Cassian come in. Cassian cleared his throat to get the man’s attention, and wasn’t surprised when Bodhi jumped. 

“Cassian, hey, look at this,” he said in lieu of a greeting. 

Bodhi Rook had been in the military with Cassian, though he had been a pilot to Cassian’s Special Operations. He had been discharged after his helicopter had been shot down on a covert ops mission and he had broken a leg. He decided not to re-up once his healing was done, and once Cassian had gotten out and started up Rogue One Bodhi was one of the first people he called. The pilot had some serious Post Traumatic Stress, but he wouldn’t get treatment for it and so Cassian tried to help him as best he could. He had gotten steadily better in the years since they had been out, but he was still more than a little bit jumpy. Cassian didn’t mind. The man had a head for investigations and had been nothing but a friend to him.

And now, he had intel on a case that had been frustrating Cassian for three weeks now. 

He pointed at the document he was holding. It was heavily redacted, but the implications of it made Cassian frown. 

“The Trade Federation?” That didn't make sense. The Federation was a corporate interest lobbying group directly opposed to Senator Palpatine’s constituents’ interests. The data Bodhi held showed that Palpatine was indirectly working with them. 

“How firm is this connection?” He asked. 

Bodhi shrugged. “It's all conjecture at this point. But look at this.” He handed Cassian another page out of the stack on the desk. 

Cassian’s eyebrows shot up. “Trade Federation strikes in Naboo… Holy shit he instigated the strikes against his own people? Why? What does he gain?” 

“I don't know, but one of the interns at his Senate offices says he's prepping to address the Senate in a few days.” 

“So whatever his ask is, that's when it'll come out.” 

Bodhi nodded and the two stared at each other, minds racing.

“Mothma needs to know this. I'll give her the heads up. Get the data to Kay so he can add it to his analysis,” Cassian ordered, already in motion towards his office. 

“Stress that it's tenuous at best,” Bodhi called. 

“Of course.” Cassian logged into his computer and began carefully composing his email to Mon Mothma. His mind was racing and he kept having to stop writing the email to jot down notes, questions and possible avenues for further investigation. So far all they had was a bit of corruption, the kind he'd really expect from most senators. He was sure even Mothma had some skeletons in her closet. But the implications of this sort of corruption could run a whole lot deeper and if they did, he needed to know. 

Cassian finished his email and read through it again, changing words until it had just the right tone. He sent it off to the Senator and leaned back in his chair to read through the list of leads he'd written down. One of them particularly looked promising, so he set about researching a way into the Trade Federation. The Federation lobbied the government, ostensibly on behalf of trade unions across the country, but if Palpatine was involved perhaps they had different motives. 

His phone chimed. 

Cassian picked it up off the desk, noticing for the first time that it was dark outside his windows. Apparently he had been sifting through Trade Federation connections for a bit longer than he thought he had been. 

He had a text message from Jyn. He couldn’t quite stop the small grin that flitted over his face, and he refused to think through the implications of that smile. 

Jyn: 5 bucks you’re still at work. 

He laughed aloud and tapped out a message back. 

Cassian: You can’t prove I am. You owe me 5 bucks. 

Her response was quick and feisty, as he would have expected. Jyn: Send me a pic in the next minute of you anywhere other than work, or else you buy lunch tomorrow. 

He grinned. Cassian: I can’t. 

Jyn: Ha! Ready to find out how much pregnant ladies can eat? 

Cassian: I’ve seen you when the cravings hit. I’m pretty sure you’re actually carrying a black hole in there. 

She didn’t answer for a long moment, and he began to worry that he had offended her. He was thinking through how best to apologize when his phone dinged again. 

Jyn: Sorry, laughed so hard I had to pee. Damn baby moved my bladder. 

She sent him another text almost immediately. Jyn: Go home Cass. You can save the world tomorrow. 

He sent her some sort of affirmative response, he was sure. He really couldn’t get past that she had called him Cass though, and how much he liked the sound of it. 

*

Cassian: Hey, can’t make lunch today. Meeting. 

Jyn: Ok, no worries. 

Jyn: Everything okay?

Cassian: Yeah, just work stuff. 

Cassian chewed his lip, the string of messages between him and Jyn staring up at him. He never knew how far he could push her, and he was always worried that he was going to push her too far, right away from him. He wondered why he didn’t trust that she wanted to be around him just as much as he wanted to be around her. He decided to take a leap of faith. 

Cassian: Make you dinner though? 

Her response only took a minute or two, but it felt like an eternity. 

Jyn: Sure. Your place? 

Cassian: Sure. 6 ish? 

Jyn: Sounds good. 

Cassian sighed down at his phone. Jyn had never seen his apartment, and all that was racing through his head now was that he was pretty sure it was a complete disaster. He hadn’t really been there much in the last few days, what with working late on the Palpatine case and hanging out with Jyn. In fact, he couldn’t really remember the last time he had cleaned his house. He wondered if he could get away from work early enough to at least tidy it up - but he had arrived at his meeting and he had to put all thoughts of Jyn out of his head. 

He was meeting with one of the Chairs of the Trade Federation to propose his support for their cause. The Chair had expressed interest in his unique skills after Cassian had first contacted him, and Cassian was pretty sure that the Federation was going to try to get Rogue Investigations to dig up dirt on the politicians they were lobbying. If he could get Senator Mothma to give him information that was not critical enough to be dangerous but enough to keep the Federation interested, he could possibly use it to his advantage, perhaps to trade for information on Palpatine. And either way, closer ties to the Federation could allow him to find people within the organization that would tell him what he was needed to know. It required all of his concentration, and regardless of how much his brain wanted to focus on Jyn he couldn’t. Dinner would work out or it wouldn’t, and he had to think that Jyn wasn’t going to stop being his friend if his house was a little messy. 

Cassian took a deep breath and got out of his car. Time to earn that retainer Mothma had him on.


	6. 22 Weeks Remaining, Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which cards are played, Netflix shows are watched, and Saw makes an appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! This one is a long one, but I'm pretty happy with its direction. As always, I live to hear from you, and you've all been wonderfully kind in your commenting. It's inspiring. Thank you so much for continuing to read this brainchild of mine, and I hope I can live up to all of you. 
> 
> \- AO

5:30 pm. 

His house was a mess, he was right. Cassian had tidied like a madman as soon as he got home, chucking things into closets and into his bedroom so that he could close the door on it and hope Jyn didn’t notice. He had to get dinner started though, so he didn’t have much time for a deep clean. 

His doorbell rang. Cassian looked up from the stove, his red sauce bubbling away and the chicken he was shredding halfway done. It was only 5:30, and Jyn was historically never early. He went to his door anyways, and was shocked to see Bodhi and Kay on the other side. 

“What are you doing here?” He asked, a bit more abruptly than he had intended. 

“Nice to see you too Cassian. It’s Wednesday. We play cards on Wednesday. It’s your turn to host,” Kay said. 

He stared at them slack-jawed. 

“You forgot,” Bodhi sighed. They pushed past him anyways, and Bodhi held up a six pack of beers. “No worries, we’ll just order in.” 

He paused when he saw Cassian’s kitchen and all the fixings of enchiladas laid out. 

“Or not,” he said, “you expecting someone?” 

Kay snorted. “Jyn Erso, obviously.” 

Cassian wouldn’t classify the sound he made as a squawk, but it wasn’t not a squawk either. “Why obviously?” 

“I tapped your phone.”

Cassian stared at him. Kay Tooeso had been a friend since Cassian punched the boy bullying him in the third grade. He was weird, analytical, completely lacking in people skills, and loyal to a fault. On the surface of it Cassian had to be upset that Kay had tapped his phone so that Kay knew it was inappropriate, but he wasn't exactly surprised. It was Kay’s way of looking out for him. 

“You were distracted and altogether too happy at work,” Kay said by way of explanation. 

“You don't get to tap my phone, Kay. If you're worried about me just ask,” Cassian said, “Also, why does me being happy make you worried? I’m happy most of the time!” 

Bodhi and Kay just looked at him and he didn’t press that point. Kay, as usual, didn’t look at all remorseful over what he’d done, but then again Cassian hadn’t expected him to. Kay didn’t really react to situations the way most people would; it was part of why it was so difficult for him to make friends. 

“Well, does Jyn play cards?” Kay asked, and the bottom dropped out of Cassian’s stomach. 

Bodhi swooped to his rescue. “Nah, it’s alright, we’ll reschedule. Come on, Kay, let’s go.” 

They turned to leave and as Kay’s tall body shifted Cassian spotted the last person he wanted to see in the doorway. Jyn looked sort of frozen, her eyebrows raised and a six-pack of beers in her hand. She blanched when all three men looked at her, and her eyes darted between them before landing on Cassian. He was hoping that his apartment’s floor might open up and swallow him, but unfortunately the tile didn’t seem too willing to move. 

“Uh… Hi Cassian,” Jyn said, still frozen in the doorway. 

“Hi.” It wasn’t a squeak, it really wasn’t. 

“Hello Jyn Erso.” 

That at least got her eyes off him. She narrowed them at Kay instead. Cassian had spent many a lunchtime telling her stories of his two coworkers, and though they hadn’t been formally introduced she knew more about Bodhi and Kay that most of the people in their lives. 

“You must be Kay,” she said, confirming his suspicion. 

“Yes. Kay Tooeso. Data analyst.” Kay didn’t offer to shake hands, just nodded. 

“Hi Jyn, I’m Bodhi, Bodhi Rook. Nice to meet you,” Bodhi intercepted, and Cassian shot him a grateful glance. “We were just leaving though.” 

Her lips tilted into her most sarcastic smirk, one that she hadn’t really used around Cassian in quite a while. 

“So I heard.” 

Cassian went red. She had clearly been there for a couple minutes if she had heard Bodhi say that they would leave, and now he was stuck. For the first time he could remember, Cassian’s mind blanked and he didn’t know what to do. 

“Why don’t you stay?” Jyn offered. “It looks like Cassian made enough to feed the whole building, and I’d hate to interrupt card night.” 

Cassian didn’t think he could become any more embarrassed than he already was, but apparently he was wrong. He groaned and set his head down on the kitchen island. Bodhi at least had the decency not to laugh out loud at him. Jyn, not so much. Kay never laughed. 

A small hand touched his shoulder and when he brought his head up off the counter Jyn was beside him. He stared down at her, trying to figure out if she actually wanted Kay and Bodhi to stay or if she was trying not to be rude, but she looked calm, without the pinched scowl that he usually associated with her public face. 

“Do you know how to play poker?” Kay asked, and there was that scowl again. 

“Of course I play poker,” she said, and snatched the deck of cards out of Kay’s hand. 

Cassian busied himself in the kitchen putting the enchiladas into the oven while they set up the poker game, Jyn and Kay bickering the whole way through. They sounded like grouchy siblings, with Bodhi punctuating their comments with small huffs of laughter. He went out to join them as soon as the food was in and Jyn passed him a bottle of beer. She popped the lid off another one and took a sip, disregarding the aghast expressions of Bodhi, Kay, and Cassian. 

“You are not supposed to drink alcohol while you are pregnant,” Kay said, the disapproval in his tone enough to cow someone with less spine than Jyn. She just scowled and turned the label to face him. 

“Non-alcoholic, Kay, but thanks for your faith in me.” 

Kay blinked, nonplussed. “I do not have enough information about you to have faith in you. I am sorry for assuming though.” 

Cassian picked up the cards and cut the two of them off before Jyn could retaliate. She had gotten an apology from Kay, which was more than most people ever did. “I’ll deal. Texas hold’em?” 

A sound of agreement met that offer and he started handing out cards. 

*

Jyn’s non-alcoholic beer might not have been able to get her drunk, but it did make her have to pee every ten or fifteen minutes. Kay was irritated by it, as usual, but Bodhi and Cassian, who had both switched to actual beer, began keeping tally and stealing her chips when she got up. It didn’t matter, she always won them all back by the end of the next round. The enchiladas were a hit, and even Jyn’s temperamental fetus seemed to enjoy them. Cassian dug some ice cream out of his freezer to finish it off, and when he brought the tub and four spoons back to his table it occurred to him that he hadn’t had this much fun in quite a while. In fact, he thought as he looked around, he could get used to this. 

He was distracted from thinking about what exactly he could get used to by Jyn and Kay fighting over ice cream, and happily put those dangerous thoughts out of his mind in favor of the present moment. Knowing him, there would be plenty of time to worry about it tomorrow. 

It was late in the evening before Kay began tapping his feet and staring intently at Bodhi, his usual signals for wanting to leave. Bodhi picked up on it sooner rather than later, which was nice, since Kay’s next set of signals were not nearly so polite. They said their goodbyes, and to everyone’s surprise Jyn even hugged Bodhi before he left. They had gotten along like a house on fire, which made an expression a little too much like hope in rush through his chest. 

As the door closed behind Kay and Bodhi, Jyn let out a sigh like a gust of relief. Cassian looked over at her, standing by the kitchen island, one hand resting on her slight tummy, and smiled. She smiled back. 

“Well that wasn’t quite what I had in mind,” Cassian heard himself say. 

Jyn’s smile widened slightly and her cheeks flushed. “What did you have in mind?” 

Cassian ran his hands through his hair and considered his next words. “Well… more the dinner and Netflix route, I think.” He ploughed on. “Where did you get so good at poker?” 

“Saw taught me,” she said, and calmly began tidying his kitchen. She collected beer bottles and stacked them beside his sink, and put the dishes in the sink. Cassian watched her for a moment, struck by how domestic she looked, and then shook it off and helped her. To his surprise, she kept talking as she went. 

“Saw taught me, and then we would play with some of his business buddies. They always underestimated me. I made enough money to pay for college,” she said with a little grin. Cassian raised his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes. “Oh don’t give me that look. Poker is legal, as is fleecing rich men who think I’m just going to simper and fold.” 

He laughed. “When you put it that way…” The kitchen was as tidy as it was going to get and Cassian didn’t know what to do yet. He didn’t want Jyn to leave, and by the way she was lingering near his couch he thought just maybe she didn’t want to leave either. 

“Have you seen that new Netflix show? Girlboss?” He asked. “Seems like your kind of thing.” 

She shook her head. “No, but I’ve seen the ads and I resent that implication.” 

He took the leap and turned on the TV, opening up Netflix while she got comfortable on the couch. He put on the show and sat down beside Jyn, unable to resist frequent glances in her direction. Her face was lit up by the screen, and she was beautiful, and he had had too many beers. He turned back to the screen, and so didn't see Jyn when she leaned into him until her head was on his shoulder and she was rearranging her feet under her. Cassian stiffened momentarily, unsure of himself and mind racing with implications, and then he sighed and let his fears go. He lifted the arm that Jyn was leaned against and she took the hint to curl up against his side, head on the crook of his neck. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and stared determinedly at the screen, unwilling to call attention to this moment and risk Jyn retreating. 

They went through another episode of the show before Cassian chanced a look down at Jyn, and saw that her eyes were soundly shut. He grinned. He wasn't going to let her hear the end of this in the morning. He studied her face, noticing how much more peaceful she looked when she slept. The Jyn he knew was all fire and heart, but this Jyn had no scowl lines across her forehead, no sparks in her eyes. She was lovely, either way. He watched Netflix countdown to the next episode and closed his own eyes. 

*

Cassian woke to the feeling of something nudging his hand very gently. He cracked an eye open slowly, and then both eyes shot open as he realized that he was laying on his couch, arms wrapped around Jyn Erso. One of his arms was tucked under her head, supporting it in lieu of a pillow, and the other was draped over her waist, his hand flat against her stomach. Her baby was kicking and he could feel it. Cassian wondered if he stayed perfectly still, if Jyn wouldn’t wake up and he could just savor this moment. Something clicked in the back of his brain and he sighed. There was no fighting it, and he didn’t think there had been any fighting it from the very beginning. 

“I think she has a vendetta against my bladder,” Jyn murmured. She rolled slowly onto her back and looked up at him, her gaze meeting his. She smiled softly. Cassian’s arms were still around her and she hadn’t protested yet and his heart was beating a mile a minute and she must be able to feel it - 

“Shit, there she goes again.” Jyn sat up as fast as her belly would allow her and beelined for his bathroom. Cassian sat up and ran both his hands through his hair, his mind racing. He badly wanted to ask Jyn what they were doing, what was happening between them, but he was nervous. He liked her, she made him laugh and she challenged him and he didn’t want to lose her friendship, but whatever this was it wasn’t just friendly anymore. 

He checked his clock. “Shit, Jyn, what time do you have to be at work?” he called. 

“Nine, why?” 

“Because it’s 8:30.” 

She shrieked and came barrelling out of his bathroom. “Shit, shit, I don’t have any clothes-” 

“I’ll take you home,” he offered. She nodded, and Cassian sprung into gear. He changed clothes quickly, knowing full well he was rumpled and Kay was going to calculate all sorts of probabilities when he got to work, and by the time he had come out Jyn was ready to go. They were quiet on the way to her apartment, Jyn apparently deep in thought and Cassian nervously avoiding asking her all the questions he wanted to, but when they got to her place she scrambled out of the car and then waited for him. 

“Come on, you’re driving me to work,” she said, “so you might as well come in while I get ready.” 

He followed her, as he suspected he would regardless of what she asked, but raised his eyebrows at her. 

“It’s your fault I’m going to be late, so I should at least get to take advantage of your car,” she said in response. 

Cassian spluttered aloud. “My fault? How do you figure?” 

“Well if you weren’t so comfortable-” Jyn stopped herself halfway through and blushed bright red. Cassian grinned so wide his cheeks hurt and let it go. If he had needed an answer, that was as good a one as he was going to get from Jyn. He could already see her pulling back though, her eyes downcast and her lips pressed tight together. 

“Best sleep I’ve had in a while,” he murmured, and her head whipped around to look up at him. She stared at him for a moment, suspicion written all over her face, and then relented. She flashed him a small smile and whispered something that almost sounded like “Thanks.” 

It only took Jyn a few minutes to get herself ready, and then they were piling back out of the apartment building and into Cassian’s car. The drive to her jobsite was quiet, but it didn’t seem like an uncomfortable quiet. Cassian hoped that Jyn concurred and wasn’t sitting in agony waiting for the first opportunity she had to get rid of him. It seemed that he needn’t have worried though, as they pulled up to her work place and she lingered in the car, her eyes searching his face for something. 

“Cassian,” she started, and paused to chew on her lip. 

There was a knock on his window. Cassian damn near jumped out of his skin, and when he had recovered slightly he turned to see who was there. A large man with one slightly lazy eye and a deathly glare stared down at him, his head bent towards Cassian’s car and his heavy jowls reminding Cassian quite strongly of a bloodhound or a basset of some sort. Not that he would make that comparison to this man. He had seen enough photos and been around this part of town long enough that he knew who this was, and he knew he wasn’t someone Cassian wanted to cross. 

He opened the door, careful not to hit Saw Gerrera with the car door. Jyn joined him on his side of the car as soon as she had levered herself out of the far side of the vehicle. 

“You’re Cassian,” Saw barked. Cassian could tell that he had been military at some point by the way that he stood and the way he stared Cassian down. Cassian stared right back, more than a little bit used to this power play. 

“Jyn, you’re late. Go sign in.” Gerrera ordered. She glared at him but didn’t argue, an absolute first as far as Cassian had seen. Then she stood up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to Cassian’s cheek, and he wasn’t sure if it was in defiance of Saw or because she meant it for him or - a million thoughts ran through his head in quick succession and all he could do was blink at her like a deer caught in the headlights. 

Saw let him watch Jyn walk away for only a moment before he turned on Cassian, diverting the man’s attention from the way Jyn was beginning to develop a pregnancy waddle. 

“Captain Andor,” Saw started, and Cassian resisted the urge to snap to attention, “we need to talk. Step into my office.”


	7. 22 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Saw surprises Cassian, Cassian surprises Jyn, and Jyn is flabbergasted by everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hallloooo readers! Thanks so much for all your lovely comments, they make my day :) I'm going away for a few days, so I'm not sure when the next update will be, but hopefully super soon! 
> 
> -AO

“Take a seat,” Saw ordered, and Cassian obeyed. He was in Saw’s little portable trailer office, set off to one side of the construction site his company was currently working on. Jyn had disappeared off onto the site, and now Cassian was here, feeling like he was back in ninth grade and going to pick up his girlfriend for the first time. Not that Jyn was his girlfriend, and not that he was in ninth grade anymore. He took a breath and straightened up. 

“You’ve become quite close with my daughter,” Saw stated. Cassian tilted his head and considered the older man. 

Saw was a reclusive person for all his influence in the poorer neighbourhoods of the city. He built social housing and took on large scale construction projects for far too little money, and yet he always seemed to turn a profit. Cassian and others had long suspected that Saw was invested in more than just construction, but there had never been any proof. There had also never been any reason to go after Saw, given the good he did for the community. Cassian had no idea if he did those community projects out of the goodness of his heart or because he wanted to keep police off of him, and he supposed to the people who benefited it didn’t really matter. 

“Yes,” he admitted calmly. 

“Why is that?” 

Cassian grit his teeth. “That’s a rather personal question, Mr. Gerrera.” 

Saw regarded him with narrowed eyes. “Is it now.” It wasn’t a question. “Who are you to my daughter?” He asked. 

Cassian had his back up now, though. “Whatever she needs me to be. Sir, have you had this talk with Jyn?” He suspected not. THe way Saw flicked his eyes away confirmed that suspicion, but abruptly the man changed tactics and sighed. 

“Have you tried to have a serious discussion with Jyn, Captain Andor?” He asked. “She’s not often willing to discuss her personal life with me. Perhaps if she were…” He stopped himself. 

Cassian didn’t say anything, just waited him out. This was a man who needed to say something, and Cassian would let him get to it in his own time. 

“I need your help, Captain,” Saw said bluntly. 

Cassian raised his eyebrows. This was not what he had expected. 

“Jyn is… overtaxing herself at this job. She takes on too much responsibility in my company, and it is placing undue stress on her and the baby. I have asked her to step back, but she will not. I’m going to fire her, and I would like you to hire her. I understand you have an empty clerical position.” Saw watched him carefully as he spoke. 

Cassian was speechless. He ran a hand through his hair and tried to process what Saw was saying. 

“Jyn’s smart, she could get a new job anywhere. Why with me?” He asked, though he thought he might know the answer. 

“You will protect her.” 

“Is she in danger?” 

Saw stared at him momentarily, a glorious scowl on his face. “Captain am I correct in assuming you understand my business?” 

“I think I do,” Cassian said slowly, considering his words carefully. 

“Then you understand why Jyn should not be involved in her vulnerable state. I have taught her how to protect herself, but…” He trailed off like he didn’t know how to explain to Cassian without admitting to things he didn’t want to admit to. 

“The baby,” Cassian finished. Saw took the out gratefully. 

“Yes.” 

“I understand.” Cassian leaned back in his chair. It was a lot to take in. A thought hit him. “But isn’t this going to alienate Jyn? She’s not going to take it well.” 

“No she will not. But let me ask you, Captain, what would you do to protect someone you love? Would you push them away, if that were the only way to ensure their safety?”   
He didn’t have to think about it. “Yeah, I would.” 

Saw sighed. “She will forgive me in time.” He turned his chair and began rummaging through a filing cabinet. A second later he had found whatever he was looking for and handed Cassian a paper. He read it over, and like everything in this odd situation it took a minute for the information to sink in. 

It was banking information, a transfer account that had been set up at Cassian’s bank. He noticed with dim alarm in the back of his brain that Saw knew what bank he went to, but his forebrain had bigger things to worry about. Like the fact that the account Saw had set up had notes on it for a continuing payment every two weeks, for a large sum. If Cassian took the money he would be in Saw’s pocket, and that was not a place he wanted to be. 

“What’s this?” He asked, carefully schooling his face as blank as he could. 

“I understand your company does not pay benefits,” Saw said bluntly. Cassian’s face reddened and he said nothing. He did the best he could and tried to help if Bodhi or Kay needed anything, but they weren’t exactly a high profit company. 

“Jyn will not allow me to pay her expenses, and she will obviously have doctors’ appointments and the cost of giving birth, as well as maternity leave. I do not want to put you in a position to overreach your means, but she gives me no choice,” he said, and for the first time Cassian appreciated the position that Saw was in. Jyn was ferociously independent and wouldn’t take help from anyone - it had taken Cassian weeks to even get her to let him buy her coffee every once in awhile - let alone let Saw fund what she saw as her mistake. This way, Saw could make sure that Jyn was safe from his less savory business associates, help her with the high cost of being pregnant, and keep her pride intact. Cassian was just a convenient proxy to do it through. 

“All of the money goes to Jyn,” Cassian confirmed, and he could see that Saw understood him. 

“You will owe me nothing. If anything, it is I who will owe you.” 

That Cassian could work with. “Alright.” 

Saw stood abruptly and extended a hand. Cassian stood to grasp it. 

“Excellent. We are in business, then,” Saw boomed, and Cassian hoped the feeling of trepidation in the pit of his stomach was just nerves and not an indication of things to come. His gut hadn’t been wrong so far. 

*

She was ranting before she even made it all the way into his office. She looked like thunder inhabiting human form, her narrow face pulled into a frown and her fists clenched by her sides. 

“- FIRED ME! He can’t fucking fire me, I’m his fucking daughter! He says I’m unreasonable and irritable and I can’t do the job and - FUCK!” She took a breath and Cassian couldn’t help a little smile. He knew better than to interrupt Jyn at this point - taking a breath just mean she was gearing up for the next tirade. Sure enough, she let loose. 

“I have done everything he asked me to. I’m sorry my fucking baby is an inconvenience to him, but it has nothing to do with my ability to my job! He’ll be fucking lucky if he ever gets to see my kid!” 

Cassian actually did laugh a bit at that, and he knew immediately that he had made a mistake. She turned on him. She marched up to him and poked a finger at his chest, laying into him with indiscriminate fury. 

“Is this funny to you, Andor? This is my fucking livelihood we’re talking about! What about this is entertaining?” 

He grasped her poking hand and brought it away from its repetitive thudding. “You’re not going to push Saw out of your baby’s life, Jyn,” he said. She scowled even further, and he had to resist the urge to flick her protruding bottom lip. 

“I might,” she said, but her tone was petulant instead of enraged. He hadn’t let go of her hand yet and she kept glancing down at it. Her cheeks were tinged pink and wasn’t that an interesting development, Cassian noted dimly. 

“You won’t. You’re too sweet for that,” he murmured, and now she really was blushing. Cassian ploughed onwards. 

“Why did he fire you?” Cassian asked. 

Jyn, whose face was bright red by now, pulled her hand away and began pacing his office. 

“He says he’s doing it to protect me,” she said, and the hurt was evident in her voice, “Like he thinks I can’t handle myself.” 

“I don’t think it’s you he’s worried about,” Cassian replied, looking pointedly at her belly. She put her hands over her bump. 

“I know, I just… I can protect myself, Cassian, I don’t need someone else! And I don’t need to be looking for a new job right now! Who’s going to take on a pregnant lady when I’m just going to need time off in a few months? No one!” 

“Come work for me.” He said it easily, as if his heart wasn’t pounding and he wasn’t worried she could see right through him. She stopped in the middle of the office and stared at him. 

“What?” she squeaked. 

“Come work for me. We still haven’t found a new receptionist that Kay won’t drive off, and I feel like you won’t have an issue standing up to him. It’s nice hours, weekends off, and there’s benefits.” 

Jyn’s mouth was agape and she didn’t seem to notice that she was twisting the hem of her shirt in her hands. She looked between him and the empty receptionist’s desk and then back at him, like she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. 

“Did Saw put you up to this?” She asked finally, and his heart sank. They should have known, he and Saw, that she would put two and two together. In their efforts to protect her they had forgotten that she was smart and suspicious. 

He had waited too long to answer, though. Her face reddened for a whole different reason and the scowl returned. 

“He did, didn’t he? Cassian, I don’t need you to take care of me!” She was yelling now and he couldn’t help but begin to get a bit angry. All he wanted was to help her, and so did Saw. 

“I know!” He yelled back. She paused and he took the gap. 

“You don’t need me, you don’t Saw, you don’t need anyone! In all your rush to not need anyone, did you stop to think that maybe your baby is going to need you? And if you put yourself in danger to prove to Saw that you can handle it, you’re also endangering the baby?” She looked like she was going to beat him to death, but he kept on. 

“Jyn, we know you’re capable and smart and professional and all that. You don’t have anything to prove to anyone, least of all me or Saw. But if you have people who are willing to help you, why not let them? Saw asked me if I would hire you, yeah. But I’m not doing it because I think you need to be wrapped in a blanket and hovered over, I’m doing it because maybe Kay won’t be able to run you off and maybe you’ll notice things in this horrible case and maybe you’ll be damn good at it.” He ran out of breath and quite frankly, out of fortitude. Jyn was looking at him like he had sprouted another head, but she wasn’t raging anymore and he took that as a bit of a win. 

Cassian thought over what he had said. It was unlike him to give speeches, but he believed what he had said and he hoped Jyn did too. It was perhaps revealing a bit more of himself than he had wanted, but as he thought that and his mind flashed with fear her face, staring up at him while he held her on his couch, popped into his mind. It was too late to be afraid of Jyn now.

She considered his words for a long moment and bit her lip. “Okay, Cassian, I’ll work for you,” she whispered. He tried not to smile and failed. 

“Okay,” he said, “Let’s get you set up.”


	8. 20 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cassian contemplates business, Jyn contemplates food, and Bodhi contemplates combining the two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is such a short chapter, folks! I am done my first summer semester now, so I actually have a bit of time! Go figure. I'm going to post the next chapter tomorrow, so you'll have a double dose to bide you over, since I'm going out of town for a while. I'll be beyond the range of all electronics for a while, which should be relaxing. 
> 
> Thanks as always for reviewing and reading and being so very kind <3 
> 
> \- AO

When Cassian had set up Rogue Investigations, he had made an effort to ensure that the office was bright, inviting, and welcome for clients. He had thought he had done a good job. Then he hired Jyn, and bright took on a whole new meaning. She brought a bit of life to the office that hadn’t been there before just with her presence. She fought with Kay, joked with Bodhi, went for lunch with him and reminded him not to stay at work all night.She brought something to their little group that he hadn’t known had been missing, and Cassian found himself wondering how he could give it up when she eventually went back to work with Saw.From his office with his door open, he could hear her and Bodhi chatting. 

“Can you charge that lunch to Mothma’s expense account?” Bodhi asked. 

“Sure. That account is sure getting a workout,” Jyn replied. 

“She wanted us to schmooze. We’re schmoozing.” 

“I don’t think she meant go to high end restaurants every other day, Bodhi.” 

“I can’t help where the work takes me,” his friend replied airily, and Cassian rolled his eyes. 

“Fine, but next time, leftovers?” 

“I’ll text you a picture of the menu.” 

Cassian grinned and came out of his office in time to see Bodhi kiss Jyn’s cheek and saunter out of the office. Bodhi had been working on winning over Trade Federation employees who might be close to the Chairs and buttering up other Senators or people who worked in Palpatine’s office. That meant a lot of lunches, a lot of wine, and a lot of time. It was valuable work though, and so far he had managed to turn up information that showed Palpatine’s private business ventures had funded several Trade Federation initiatives. It wasn’t illegal to donate money to lobbyists though, and they still had to prove that the Senator had known about the donations and condoned them. Cassian had to come in from the top and trade information with the Chairs of the Trade Federation, but so far that was proving to be a slow game. They didn’t trust him, and getting them to would take time. 

Jyn was sitting at her desk adding Bodhi’s receipts to their accounting documents. She looked up when Cassian came in and smiled at him, the smile he could never help responding to. 

“Lunch today?” She asked. He nodded, looking over her shoulder at the expense account. They actually hadn’t spent all that much of Mothma’s money, all things considered. By the size of the expense account he thought maybe Mothma had expected more from them, and maybe there was an angle they were missing. 

“What was that?” He asked, pointing at one line of the account. Jyn expanded it. 

“Looks like… a lunch Bodhi had last week. He listed it as ‘Separatists’... are they involved in all this?” She asked, her frown deepening. 

“Do you know them?” He asked, correctly interpreting her expression. 

“I know some of them. They hate the Trade Federation, and the government. They wouldn’t be involved in this… would they?” She looked genuinely worried. 

“I don’t know, but if Bodhi is having lunch with them then they might. I’ll put it on the board,” he said, and went back into his office to add the Separatists as another potential lead on their ongoing whiteboard. Jyn followed him. Her pregnancy waddle was becoming more pronounced, though she still had a few months to go. 

“I might have a lead on a few Separatists who would be willing to talk to us. I’ll call around,” she suggested, and he nodded and added her name to the board beside the tag. He stood back and stared at his board for a moment, then realized that Jyn was still in his doorway and looking uncomfortable. He glanced at her and she shuffled her feet in a very uncharacteristic movement that on anyone else would have looked like perhaps they were embarrassed. He waited her out. 

“For lunch today… I, um, made lunch. For you, too. If you want. I’m not a great cook but-” she rambled onwards and Cassian’s brain was stuck on the fact that she had made him food. 

He cut her off. “That sounds great. Thank you,” he added, and she couldn’t look at him. She nodded shortly and walked back out into the lobby, her shoulders stiff and resolute. He wondered how much it had taken her to offer that much of herself. 

The minutes until lunchtime seemed to tick by at half their usual rate, especially since Cassian was in an impasse of waiting for contacts to get back to him. Whenever people imagined investigation work they thought of it as glamourous, undercover parties and high-stakes stake outs, but it was actually mostly calling in favors and piecing together data. More often than not it would be Kay with his data analysis that actually broke a case, and Cassian suspected it would be him this time as well. Until then, they just had to get him enough data to work with. 

Jyn had been unexpectedly helpful in that regard. She had a lot of contacts in the construction industry, and even if they didn’t know anything or weren’t connected to the Trade Federation, their suppliers were. She had been able to set up more meetings with Trade Federation affiliated companies that Cassian wouldn’t have even thought to ask about, and so far they were panning out with more and more information. All they needed was something they could bury Palpatine with, but the man was clever and kept his distance. 

Cassian sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, staring at yet another dead end on his computer screen. He shouldn’t be surprised that Palpatine covered his tracks, but it was frustrating. Mothma was going to want results at some point, and all they had right now were shadows. 

“Cass?” Jyn sounded almost timid from the doorway, as if she didn't know that her nickname for him sent tingles down his spine. He looked up and saw her waiting with a large paper bag clutched in her hands. Her knuckles were white. 

“Hey,” he smiled, trying to be reassuring without being intrusive. “Sorry, I got distracted. I'm ready when you are.” He turned his computer screen off and stood up, catching her small smile and rapid exhale. 

Jyn led him to the little park down the street without talking about it, and he was happy to follow her. It was a beautiful summer day out and he spent far too much time indoors as it was, so when she spotted a shady picnic table and looked the question at him he nodded encouragingly. She had been quiet the whole way there and she was still quiet while she set the lunch bag on the table and unloaded it. She had brought sandwiches wrapped in waxed paper and a couple containers. She handed him a sandwich and popped open the lids of the containers revealing a tub of potato salad and a tub of grapes. Cassian unwrapped his sandwich to find a cheese and turkey sandwich. He sat down opposite Jyn and grinned at her obvious nerves. 

“The last time I was on a picnic, I think I was six,” he said. She stilled. “My father took me to a park on Independence Day in Mexico. There was a concert and so many people… my dad made tacos. He made the best tacos. It was really nice.” 

Jyn looked down at the table, her sandwich sitting untouched in front of her. “I’ve never been on an actual picnic,” she said, “you know like the kind with the checkered blanket and the basket and everything. Saw wasn’t exactly the picnic type.” 

“Well I don’t have a blanket but we could sit on the grass if you want,” Cassian offered. 

Jyn laughed and shook her head. “If I get down I won’t get back up.” Cassian chuckled and the tension that had been between them eased somewhat, their usual easy chatter returning to them. They talked about their childhoods, live with Saw and Cassian’s father, and if Jyn noticed that Cassian mentioned nothing about his father past the age of six, she didn’t say anything. Just like he didn’t say anything about how often she referenced being alone while Saw was off at work. Some things just were too painful for a bright summer day with sandwiches and good company. Jyn hadn’t relaxed completely though, and Cassian could see from the way her eyes shifted and the way she kept glancing away from him that she had something else to say. He waited her out, telling her small stories about his family and his life while she worked her way through whatever was stopping her from talking to him. 

When she did come out with it, it was in typical Jyn fashion, all at once in and no particular order. 

“My ultrasound is next week,” she blurted when he had finished telling her about a carnival his grandmother had taken him to when he was young. 

“Is it?” He asked mildly, waiting. 

“I think… I was wondering… Do you want to come with me?” She wouldn’t look at him. 

Cassian rocked back on his side of the bench, his heart hammering in his throat. Of course he did, but this raised a whole new series of questions he wasn’t sure how to answer. 

“Why?” He croaked, that one question rising to the top. 

She turned bright red and glared harder at the table. “Nevermind,” she muttered. 

“No! No, I do want to go. I do. I just… I don’t understand why you want me to,” Cassian said. She glanced up at him like she wanted to see if he was telling the truth but the pull of the table was too much and she settled back for glaring at it. 

“You took me to my last two doctor’s appointments. And you took me on, for Saw. And you’re just… look, if you don’t want to go it’s fine, I can take myself,” she scowled. 

Cassian ran his hands through his hair, wondering when this had all gone so wrong. He stood up and crossed to her side of the table before he could think that maybe this was overreaching, and squatted down beside her. He took one of her clenched hands off her lap and held it in his. 

“Jyn. I want to go with you. I’d be honored, really. I’d go anywhere with you, don’t you know that?” He whispered. She couldn’t help but look at him then. She searched his eyes with her own, her blush fading. 

“Really?” She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“Really.” They sat like that for a few minutes, just looking at each other and wondering where to go from where they were. Cassian would have been happy to stay right where he was, holding onto Jyn and cataloguing the green of her eyes, but his knees were getting sore from squatting so he stood, keeping her hand in his. 

“Come on, Erso, time to get back to work.” And he hoped, he hoped it was telling that she didn’t let go of his hand once they were standing, nor on their walk back to the office.


	9. 18 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cassian stares at Jyn, Jyn stares at a screen, and Kay stares off into space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go! I don't know when I'm going to be home, so hopefully this will tide you over for a few days.

Cassian: Hey, meeting ran late. Can I meet you at the doctor’s office? 

Jyn: Sure. I might need to leave early to catch the bus. 

Cassian: Kay can drive you, if you want. I already asked him. 

Jyn: Stuck in a car with Mr. Robot for twenty minutes? Ugh. 

Cassian: Or an hour on the bus. Your call. 

Jyn: … fine. 

Cassian: You’ll be fine. He’s not that bad, really. 

*

Cassian could hear them before he could see them. He turned around in his seat so he could see the sliding glass door that led into the doctor’s office from the parking lot, and sure enough, there were Jyn and Kay. Kay’s tall body was hunched over so he could get further into Jyn’s personal space, and she walked with one hand on her hip and the other gesticulating wildly as they argued. Cassian couldn’t help but grin. He found it a bit funny how much they fought, but he knew it infuriated both of them. They just had such differing opinions on basically everything. 

“I just don’t think that everyone has to go to university,” Jyn was saying as the doors slid open. 

Kay reared back and rolled his eyes. “You’ve made that point abundantly clear. I still do not understand why. Perhaps if you had a formal education in the structure of critical thinking you could supply me with better reasoning than ‘you just don’t think so’.” 

Cassian raised his eyebrows, a bit put out himself by his friend’s remarks. Jyn, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered. She waved her hands at the tall, skinny man and rolled her own eyes. 

“You would say that. If you need to insult my lack of education to win this argument, you go right ahead. I won’t stoop to that level though. There’s lots of jobs available that don’t require a degree. Tradespeople, for example.” 

“They do attend post-secondary school. Vocational college is post-secondary,” Kay insisted. 

They walked up to Cassian and sat down on either side of him, making him immediately regret his choice of sitting in the center of one aisle of cushioned chairs. They didn’t acknowledge him, so he settled for watching them like a tennis match, his head swiveling back and forth as they fought. 

“You said specifically university. Like Bachelor’s degree university. Vocational school isn’t university, and a lot of tradespeople don’t even do that,” Jyn said. 

Kay huffed. “That is a semantic difference and you know it. If we are to split hairs, then we should split the hair between what is considered successful instead. Hello Cassian.” He threw in, and Cassian nodded at him. 

“Hi Cass,” Jyn echoed, and then it was back to it. “Fine, let's do that. What would you consider to be successful?” 

“Jyn,” Cassian tried to slip a word in edgewise. 

“Typical indications of success are job security, income above the median, investments, disposable income, and job satisfaction rate,” Kay pontificated. 

Jyn snorted. “Which doesn't take into account happiness or people who have alternative values, like not money.” 

“Jyn,” Cassian tried again. She waved at him. 

“Happiness or alternative value metrics,” said Kay at his most sarcastic, “like spiritual fulfillment are unquantifiable, therefore are not applicable measures of success.” 

“You would say that,” she muttered. 

“Jyn!” 

Kay and Jyn spun as one and glared at Cassian. 

“What?!” They both exclaimed. 

Cassian pointed at the counter. “You need to go sign in.” 

Jyn’s face contorted for a second and he thought she was about to release holy hell on him. Then she started to grin, biting her lip to try to keep it in. She turned on her heel and stalked off towards the receptionist’s inviting, poster-plastered desk. Cassian and Kay both watched her go. 

“She is infuriating,” Kay remarked. 

Cassian studied his friend for a moment, aware after so long of the quirks in his face that meant Kay was actually angry, as opposed to those that showed he was just irritated. He actually looked slightly… amused. 

“You like bickering with her,” he said, somewhat surprised by this realization. Kay’s scowl increased by a magnitude of at least five. 

“Not at all. She refuses to see reason, she is illogical, and she presents emotion based arguments as if they have equal validity to actual evidence,” he rattled off. 

Cassian’s grin widened and he leaned back in his chair like the cat that got the cream. “But you still like arguing with her. She challenges you and she makes you think in angles you don’t usually consider.” 

Kay’s frown was a perfect upside down U on his thin face. “Points of view are not equally valid just because they are different. She asks me to use social conventions and cultural cues, which are irrelevant to science.” 

“Would you like me to ask her to stop?” Cassian sighed. 

He considered. “...No.” And Cassian burst out laughing. 

Jyn came back to sit with them as Cassian was still laughing and she looked quizzically between the two of them but didn’t ask. 

“Didn’t realize Kay was that funny,” she grumbled, but Cassian caught the little smirk she sent at Kay. His friend straightened up like he took offence, but reconsidered. 

“Oh. You are joking,” he said. 

Jyn’s smile widened into something a lot more genuine and she nodded at him. Kay didn’t seem to know what to do with that, just sat back and pondered. In the sudden quiet that followed, Jyn turned to Cassian. She had that pinched look on her face that usually preceded her doing something that made her feel especially vulnerable, and again she couldn't quite meet his gaze.

“The receptionist said I could bring someone in,” she stated, and Cassian wasn't daft enough to miss what she was getting at. He paused a moment to see us she was going to ask him outright for fear of pushing her if he suggested it, it it seemed she needed him to meet her halfway. 

“Would you like me to come in with you?” He asked, keeping his face as blank as possible. From the raised eyebrows Kay was shooting at him from his other side he thought perhaps it wasn’t as blank as he would have liked. Jyn blushed though and bit her lip. 

“Is that weird?” She blurted. “You’re not - we’re not… you don’t have to.” 

“I can though, if you want me to,” he said, ignoring the part about how they were ‘not’ something. 

From his other side Kay let loose a sigh so full of condescension Cassian thought Jyn might up and punch him just on principle. “I surmise from this awkward exchange that you both want Cassian to be present in the ultrasound room and for whatever reason you are demurring. It is annoying.” 

Cassian and Jyn froze, and Cassian swivelled to glare as hard as he could at Kay. He could feel Jyn’s tension from behind him, and just as his overactive brain was trying to figure out how to mitigate this situation the receptionist yelled Jyn’s name. He swivelled back to look at her and she ducked her head, but not before he saw the fear on her face. All his anger at Kay dissolved and he stood up, offering her a hand. She glanced between it and him and back again, then took his hand. 

*

He had made a mistake. 

Not that it mattered now, he was in it and he wouldn’t abandon Jyn when she was nervous, but he had not considered several factors of this whole engagement. One - Jyn did not let go of his hand, and he wasn’t about to pull it away. Two - she was laid out on the ultrasound cot, her hair splayed around her face and her bangs in her eyes. He wanted desperately to reach and push her hair out of her face. Three - she was eventually going to have to pull her shirt up. 

They had quite a wait before the ultrasound technician came in, and as time passed Jyn’s grip on his fingers got tighter. When he thought his bones might start to creak Cassian put his other hand over hers and began rubbing circles on the back of her hand. Neither of them said anything; they didn’t need to. 

“Good morning Ms. Erso,” the ultrasound tech trilled, coming into the room in a whirl of white jacket and paisley shirt. She was a young, chipper lady, the kind of bright and shiny personality that was going to rub Jyn the wrong way basically immediately. 

“Hi,” Jyn said, a small frown already beginning to form between her eyebrows. 

The tech pulled her cart over to the bedside opposite Cassian and started to get her gear in order, chatting animatedly as she went. 

“We haven’t met,” she said to Cassian, and he braced himself, “are you the father?” There it was. Jyn went ferociously red and her scowl deepened to epic proportions. 

“No, I’m a friend. Cassian Andor,” he said, loosing his hand from Jyn’s to offer a handshake to the tech. To her great credit, the tech wasn’t phased in the slightest. 

“Oh how nice to have such a support system,” she said, and Cassian wondered if there was anything that could dent this woman’s smile. He doubted it. 

“Alright, shirt up,” she ordered, and Jyn lifted her t-shirt up to just under her breasts. Cassian fought his blush down as well as he could, and focused his attention on the gel the tech was spreading over Jyn’s bump. Jyn was staring at the ultrasound screen like she could find the answers to the universe there. 

“Okay…” the ultrasound tech started shifting the wand over Jyn’s stomach, the pictures on teh screen shifting along with it. After a couple seconds a blob appeared on screen. 

“There’s the baby’s head,” the tech said, “aaaaaand… there’s the body. Looks like it’s die on to us, so we might be able to tell the gender if you’re interested.” 

Jyn swallowed hard, her eyes shinier than usual. Cassian grinned at her and she glared at him. 

“Shut up, it’s emotional. That’s my baby,” she said, and now Cassian had to blink a bit harder. 

“Let’s hear the heartbeat,” the tech said, and did something with her machinery so that a consistent thudding sound filled the room. Jyn gave a soft, shuddering gasp and wiped her eyes. The tech passed her a tissue without looking away from her screen. 

“Heartbeat sounds good, no arrhythmia… size is good for this far along… oh look, its giving us a little wave,” the tech sounded delighted. There on the screen were five tiny fingers splayed out like the fetus was offering the tech a high-five. Cassian’s jaw dropped. There was an actual little human in there. He looked down at Jyn’s belly and then back up at the screen. Jyn was laughing a wet, shaky laugh, and he thought maybe he was clutching her fingers now. 

“Hey little buddy,” she said to the screen, and Cassian knew in that second that he loved her. Without thinking he leaned down and kissed the hand of hers that he was holding. She tore her eyes away from the screen for a second and smiled a soft, small smile at him. 

“Did you want to know the gender?” The tech asked. “I think we can find out, if you’d like. The baby’s in a good position.” 

Jyn swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “Yeah, I think so. We took a bet. And it’ll be easier to decide a name and stuff.” Cassian squeezed her fingers. 

“Alright…” the wand moved around and the tiny hand disappeared, replaced by the curve of a knee and then the side of a tiny, wedge shaped foot. The shapes became harder to identify after that, but the tech seemed to know what she was looking for. “It’s a…girl! Congratulations!” 

Cassian dropped his head onto their folded hands and Jyn whooped. 

“Told you! Shouldn’t have bet against me, Andor!” He couldn’t help but smile at her, her joy was infectious. 

“You win, you win,” he conceded. 

“Well I think we’re all done,” the tech said, and she handed Jyn a wipe to clean up her belly with. “I’ll print a couple pictures for you, and then we’ll be on our way.” 

“Thank you,” Jyn said, and the tech hummed and left the room with her cart. Cassian and Jyn stared at each other, and he was suddenly aware of what he had just been through with her. He cleared his throat and went for something safe. 

“So what do you want for the bet?” He asked. 

She shrugged, busily wiping jelly off her skin. “I’m not sure. I’ll consider and let you know.” 

He sighed. “I’m going to regret this bet, aren’t I.” To which she only grinned. 

Once Jyn’s clothes were back in order they headed out to the lobby and collected the sonograms from the tech. The tech had printed off a screenshot of the little waving hand, and then one of the baby side on as well. Jyn snapped a photo of the one with the hand and texted it to someone, murmuring “Saw,” when he raised his eyebrows in question. Then they told Kay the news. He only raised his eyebrows. 

“I assume she will be as obstinate as her mother. Excellent.” Then he wandered off to the parking lot. 

“I think that was his way of saying congratulations,” Jyn muttered, and Cassian simply couldn’t keep from raising their linked hands and kissing the back of hers. 

“Thank you for letting me come with you,” he said softly. They were standing in the middle of the doctor’s lobby, but to Cassian it seemed like the world had shrunk to just the pair of bright green eyes in front of him. 

“Thanks for being here, Cass,” she replied, and she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. She lingered for a second longer than she needed to and held his gaze when she stood back down. Time suspended and he wished he could read her mind. He thought he should kiss her - he wanted to kiss her - but if he was wrong… Jyn took a breath and her eyes flicked down. 

“We should get going,” she muttered, and the moment was gone. Cassian nodded, ran a hand through his hair, and tried to stop his mind from kicking into overdrive and analyzing everything that had just happened. The cycle was short circuited though when Jyn took his hand on the way out again, her fingers interlacing with his.


	10. 16 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn cries, Leia and Han appear, and Cassian remembers how to breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Sorry for the long delay in posting, but to make up for here is a long chapter! In which not much happens! Yaaaaaay. I'm not entirely happy with how this chapter progresses but it is good for the romance plot line, so if you have suggestions on how to improve it let me know! 
> 
> \- AO

They were out of coffee and it was Monday morning and everything was awful. It was going to be one of those days, Cassian could feel it. Nothing was going to go well, he wasn’t going to accomplish anything, and he should have just stayed in bed. His phone buzzed. 

Jyn: Zoey.

Cassian grinned. He set his empty mug down, the deplorable coffee situation temporarily forgotten in his need to reply. He and Jyn had started sending each other baby names sporadically in the attempt to find one that Jyn liked enough to add to her list, but so far they had been unsuccessful. Cassian had told her repeatedly that his opinion shouldn’t matter in her name choice, but every time he pointed out a potential negative to a name she suggested she removed it from the list without question. He wasn’t sure what to make of that. 

Cassian: At least if you’re going to name her something generic, spell it the usual way. Otherwise she’ll spend her whole life going ‘Zoey with a Y.’ 

He sent the message, knowing full well it would aggravate Jyn and she would give him an earful as soon as she made it to the office. He wasn’t counting on her voice sounding directly behind him though, and it was probably a good thing that they didn’t have any coffee because he jumped and hit his mug and the poor thing went rolling off the edge of the counter anyways. It bounced along the carpet, saved by the cushioned flooring. Jyn laughed as Cassian bent down to get his mug, and he scowled at her.

“Trust you to be the first sneaky pregnant woman in history,” he grumbled. 

“That’s not true. Juana Azuruy de Padilla fought a revolution in Bolivia while she was pregnant,” Jyn said, “she would have had to be sneaky.” 

Cassian just stared at her. “Did you google that just so you would have something to say? How did you know that?” 

She shrugged and went to her desk to get settled in for the day. “I was looking up badass pregnant ladies to see if I could find a name.” 

He leaned on the corner of the wall that separated his office from the lobby and her desk. “Juana Erso has a good ring to it. Sounds very Latina.” 

“You’d have to teach her to speak Spanish,” Jyn said, and he wondered if she plotted ways to make him speechless. He tried to contain his open-mouthed stare and cleared his throat, unable to look at her. 

“Yeah, I could do that. Sure.” He was rewarded with her small, unsure smile, and he couldn’t look away. 

Cassian’s office phone broke their small moment a second later and he took the opportunity to retreat to his office before he said anything profoundly stupid. 

“Oh by the way, my friends Leia and Han are coming in today for a meeting. Han does some transport for the Separatists. Leia’s probably going to demand that you come to this baby shower that she’s throwing, so don’t be surprised if she sort of interrogates you. She’s a bit overprotective.” 

“I resent that implication,” a soft, clear voice said from the doorway. Cassian leaned over his desk so he could see the new arrivals. The woman that the voice belonged to was a short, slender woman with elaborately wrapped brown braids, dressed simply in slacks and a tank top. She was beautiful, in a soft sort of way, but there was an edge of steel in her eyes that warned people not to mess with her. Her companion was a tall good looking man dressed similarly in a vest and trousers, who was grinning at Jyn in a way that Cassian instinctively didn’t like. 

Jyn hauled herself to her feet and hugged both the visitors, then grabbed Han by the arm and dragged him towards Bodhi’s office. The other PI was out for the day doing some legwork. 

“Don’t eat him, Leia,” she called over her shoulder, and closed the door behind them. When Cassian glanced back at Leia he saw that she was looking at him like a predator views it’s prey, like she was ready to pounce. 

“Come on in,” Cassian invited, figuring it was better just to get this over with. Leia came into his office and sat down, and he had to admire her demeanor. She walked like a general, like someone who was so used to being in charge that she assumed no one would question her right to be. Cassian watched her, waiting. 

“Jyn’s told me a lot about you,” she finally said, her face softening with a smile. 

“Really?” He was curious despite himself. 

“Mhm. All good things, which is a bit worrying. Jyn doesn’t usually like anyone that much.” 

He blushed despite himself, but Leia forged on. “She says you’ve been helping her with all the baby stuff.” 

“I’ve been trying to, yeah.” 

She hummed to herself, but she still looked suspicious of him. Oddly, Cassian felt more uncomfortable with this conversation than he had with Saw. He had known Saw’s motivations going in - a man trying to protect his daughter. He assumed Leia was looking out for her friend, but he had no context for her. He hadn’t even known about her before this morning. She studied him for a moment, but seemed to relent. 

“We’re having a baby shower for Jyn this weekend, if you’re free. She hates the idea, so it should be fun,” she said. 

Cassian nodded, unsure of what had happened but sure that he had been judged. “Sounds good. I’ll be there.” 

*

Jyn had invited Bodhi and Kay as well, so all three of Rogue Investigation’s menfolk showed up at Leia’s house in the suburbs with gifts in hand. There were a number of cars parked on the street near the house, and as the men walked up they got quieter and quieter. Even Bodhi, who was typically the most social of them, began to clam up. 

Leia answered the door at the bell and smiled to see them. “Hey guys, come on in. You can put your coats in the closet there and just stack your shoes up. Everyone’s in the living room, so just go through.” 

By silent agreement the three of them waited for each other to get their shoes and jackets off then went down Leia’s hallway to the living room together. The house was sizeable and decorated in austere whites and greys. It managed to ride the line between being minimalism and yet still looking lived in, with photos of Leia’s family on the walls and knick knacks scattered about. 

The living room was connected to the kitchen by an open floor plan that made the room feel enormous, large enough that the dozen or so people in the room didn’t make it feel cramped. Cassian recognized Saw, Leia and Han, Baze and Chirrut from the coffee shop, and oddly enough Luke Skywalker. There was another couple perched on the couch talking to Luke, and Jyn was perched on one of the stools at the peninsula that divided kitchen and living room chatting to a very tall, oddly hairy man. She lit up when she saw Cassian, Bodhi, and Kay though, and excused herself from her conversation a moment later. 

“Hey,” she called out to them, and slotted herself in beside Cassian as if she’d been there the whole time. 

“Where should we put these?” Kay asked without preamble, holding up an envelope. 

Jyn pointed at a side table that was stacked with gifts. “Thanks guys,” she said, looking more than a little embarrassed by the whole thing. Kay relieved Cassian and Bodhi of their gifts and took them over to the table, leaving Cassian eyeing up the rest of the group and Jyn grinning at Bodhi like the cat that got the cream. He looked around like he was expecting something to jump out at him. 

“Do I have something on my face?” He asked finally. 

Jyn shook her head, clearly relishing making him uncomfortable. “Luke’s been asking about you,” she said, and Cassian was certain he had never seen Bodhi blush like that before. He looked from Bodhi to Jyn and back again, his thoughts clicking into place. 

“Really?” He asked, still looking back and forth between them. Bodhi wouldn’t meet his eyes. 

“How come you didn’t say, Bodhi? I could have set you up a long time ago,” he said, and Cassian turned on Jyn. “How do you know him?” 

“Leia’s my sister,” Luke Skywalker said, and Bodhi jumped a good four inches off the ground. Luke smiled softly at him, and Cassian didn’t think Bodhi had anything to worry about. He shook hands with Luke and they exchanged pleasantries, but the man’s eyes barely left Bodhi for more than a second and Cassian began trying to think of a way to leave them alone together. 

“Come on, I’ll introduce you to people,” Jyn said, solving Cassian’s dilemma by grabbing his arm and leading him away from the two men. As soon as they were out of earshot she giggled, looking positively delighted. “I knew it!” She whispered. She was grinning like she had personally orchestrated an attraction between her two friends, but Cassian had rarely seen her this happy and he was loathe to say or do anything that might ruin it. 

“They would be good together,” Cassian agreed, and she hummed, pulling him towards the man she had been talking to at the counter before he had arrived. She didn’t let go of his arm though, and he followed her lead. 

Gradually Cassian relaxed in Jyn’s group of friends. He knew most of them, and the ones he didn’t know seemed quite nice when he spoke to them. The couple on the couch were a married pair called Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, and they worked for Saw and had known Jyn for years. The hairy man by the counter was an old friend of Han and Leia’s called Chewbacca, quite likely one of the oddest names Cassian had heard. He made small talk with people and ate the snacks that Leia had put out, but invariably Jyn would swing by as soon as he was settling into a conversation and scoop him up. She was happy to be surrounded by her friends and family, and she was downright cheerful, which rarely happened. 

Eventually though Jyn got tired, her excitement and the extra person attached to her body wearing her down until she finally allowed Cassian to install her on the couch and bring her a plate of snacks. 

“Alright, presents!” Leia called, looking a little red in the cheeks and holding a glass of wine in one hand. She picked up a box in the other hand and Cassian, knowing that look, took Jyn’s plate of snacks just in time for her to catch the gift Leia threw at her. 

Jyn looked like she wasn’t sure whether to be excited about presents or disgruntled that everyone had bought her things, but when the box revealed a tiny baby jumper shaped like a shark she couldn’t quite contain herself. 

“Awesome!” she crowed, and looked around for the gift giver. It turned out to be Luke, who hadn’t moved from his spot beside Bodhi in at least the last hour. They looked softly flushed and slightly nervous around each other, but unwilling to move. 

Jyn made her way through the pile of gifts slowly, growing more and more emotional after each one. She blamed every outburst of excitement on pregnancy hormones, but everyone could see her tearing up at the outpouring of love she was receiving from her friends. No one said a thing. 

When Leia threw her Cassian’s gift though, he couldn’t help but tense up. He was sitting beside her at her insistence, and when she felt him tense she reached over and patted his thigh. She opened the little box without preamble, and pulled out a stuffed sheep. She turned it over in her hands, a little frown bowing her lips. Cassian’s nerves mounted. 

“It’s a sleep sheep,” he explained quietly, “it makes white noise and it’s scientifically proven to help your baby sleep longer.” 

She found the buttons on the bottom of the sheep and turned it on, cycling through the white noise options. The little sheep could make a heartbeat sound, whale songs, rainfall, and a few others. She was still frowning though and Cassian was beginning to think he had made a mistake. 

“I just.. I know how grumpy you get in the mornings-” he ignored the others’ laughter, “and I thought this might help.” 

She smiled at him and he was surprised to see that she was even more watery now. “Thank you,” she said, reaching over and hugging him. It was an awkward hug given that they were beside each other on the couch, but Cassian returned it as best he could and was more than a little sad when it ended. Jyn sniffled and wiped her eyes, then yelped when Leia threw her the next one. 

“That one’s mine,” Bodhi called as Jyn opened it. She pulled out the most violently pink baby dress Cassian had ever seen. It was covered in ruffles and sparkles, and it came with a matching glittery headband. It was diametrically opposed to everything Cassian thought about Jyn, but she was cackling like a madman, 

“It’s hideous,” she exclaimed, “I love it.” 

The group laughed and Leia brought over the last gift from the table, Kay’s card. Cassian sighed, ready for the inevitable faux pas that came with Kay’s attempts at consideration. At least Jyn knew him well enough to know he meant well, though the rest of the party goers might not. 

Jyn cracked the card open with a sideways glance at Kay, to which the owlish man simply blinked. She pulled out a bright blue and green card and opened it, her eyes widening at whatever was written inside. She drew out a piece of folded paper and flattened it out, reading carefully with increasingly frequent glances at Kay. When she was through her hands fell to her lap and she just stared at him. 

“Really?” She managed. He nodded. Jyn burst into tears. She levered herself off the couch and strong-armed Kay into a hug, hiccuping her thanks into his shoulder.

“What is it?” Han asked Cassian, nodding at the card left open on the couch beside him. He picked it up and read through, his own mouth gaping open in shock at the information contained within. 

“It’s an education trust fund,” he said, “for a lot. Kay, this is very generous.” He wasn’t sure how Kay could afford it, but it was incredibly kind. 

Kay gently pried Jyn off of him and nudged her towards the couch, looking vaguely disturbed at the amount of humanity he had just been involved in. “It is smart investing. The number at the bottom is a projection of how much the account will be worth when the baby is old enough for college, not how much is in there now.” 

Cassian relaxed slightly, as that was much more reasonable. It was still a very generous gift though. Jyn shifted in closer to Cassian on the couch so that her thigh was pressed up against his and her shoulder was snuggled under him, and Cassian didn’t mind one bit. 

“Why, Kay?” She asked. 

Kay shrugged, completely nonplussed by the whole experience. “When we were discussing post secondary I thought of it. I believe all children should have the opportunity to attend university.” 

That set Jyn to tearing up all over again, and all Cassian could do was sit through it. Once Jyn had settled down Leia brought out cake, which cheered everyone up, and the night wound on with good conversation and plenty of wine. Jyn began yawning towards ten o’clock, worn down by the rollercoaster of emotions and people of the day. Cassian was once again faced with a dilemma. He would usually give her a ride home, or at least offer, but she was here with all of her friends and he knew that at least a few of them were brimming with questions as to the nature of his and Jyn’s relationship. He didn’t really want to give them any more fuel. He stayed stuck in his internal debate for some time, right up until a weight settled on his shoulder and he looked down to see Jyn leaning on him, struggling to keep her eyes open. 

“Do you want a ride home?” He asked her as quietly as he could. She yawned so wide her jaw cracked. 

“I’m not even tired,” she insisted, and he snorted. 

“Really? That must be why you’re getting comfortable then. Because you’re wide awake.” 

She smacked his arm but any reply was cut off by another jaw-splitting yawn. Once her mouth closed she sighed. “Alright, fine.” 

Cassian stood and pulled her to her feet. “You want to make the rounds and I’ll pack up your presents?” She nodded. 

Cassian began coalescing Jyn’s baby gifts into a couple of bags so he could easily transport them, watching Jyn out of the corner of his eye. She said her goodbyes to her friends and family, and he clocked the ones that glanced over at him when they realized just how she was getting home. Kay and Bodhi were used to it, and surprisingly Saw didn’t seem bothered. Leia’s eyebrows hit her hairline and Cassian knew Jyn was going to get an earful the next day, but the rest seemed very calm. Chirrut just smiled serenely and Cassian resolved to try to spend more time with the blind man. He had a feeling Chirrut was good for the soul. 

It took far longer to get Jyn ready and out of the house than he had anticipated, and by the time she was actually walking to his car she was blinking heavily and yawning in rapid-fire succession. 

“You’re going to be out in five minutes,” Cassian predicted, and chuckled when she tried to protest. He helped her into the passenger seat and closed the door, shaking his head when she immediately tilted the seat back. Less than five minutes, apparently. 

But she was still awake when he got in, and a couple blocks from Leia’s her eyes were still open. She broke the silence a few moments later. 

“I’m glad you came,” she murmured. Cassian succumbed to impulse and reached over, lacing his fingers through hers. 

“Me too,” he said, “thanks for inviting me.” 

They drove in silence after that, their hands pressed warm together and the intimacy of a car in the night wrapped around them. As he had expected, Jyn was asleep when he pulled up to her apartment. Cassian rummaged through Jyn’s purse for her keys, hoping she wouldn’t mind, and then walked around to her side of the car. 

“Come on, Jyn,” he said, easing her gently out of the car and onto her feet. She grumbled and groaned and opened her eyes slightly, just to close them again. He leaned her into his side and wrapped an arm around her to keep her upright, resolving to come back for her presents after he had gotten her into bed. Jyn let him lead her into her apartment, barely opening her eyes the whole way up. Cassian marvelled a little at how far they had come, from a woman who didn’t even want him to see her apartment to one that trusted him so much she assumed he would get her home safely.

He unlocked the apartment and Jyn wandered in, toeing off her shoes and dropping her purse near the door, where it would most likely stay until she needed it again. Jyn did not believe in the concept of putting things away - things lived where they fell, and she didn’t seem to mind. Cassian watched her head for her room and figured it was time to head home.

“I’ll get your presents out of the car and then get going,” he called, and Jyn flapped a lazy hand at him from her bedroom door. 

“Just grab them in the morning,” she said, and everything froze. 

Jyn slowly turned around, her face flushed. Cassian didn’t move. Neither of them said anything for far too long, and Cassian’s brain refused to try to put words together in any semblance of order. He only knew that they were staring at each other, and he was scrambling to figure out what she wanted, what she meant, what he wanted her to mean - and his rain just couldn’t do it. So he threw caution to the wind. He took a step towards her, and then another step, and another until he was standing in front of her, close enough that she had to tilt her head back slightly to keep looking at him. 

He tried to speak, found his throat was too dry, and swallowed hard. “Do you want me to stay?” He asked. 

She nodded, and then bit her lip. “Is that… do you want to stay?” 

Cassian breathed out and realized he had been holding his breath. “Yes. Yeah, yes.” Jyn laughed and Cassian ducked his head, grinning back. She took his hand and led him into her room, closing the door behind him.


	11. 16 Weeks Remaining Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn brushes her teeth, Cassian accepts a phone call, and the fetus demands sustenance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing chapter summaries is basically my favorite part of fandom.

He could have cut the tension between them with a knife. Jyn closed the door behind them and they were in her room, lit only by the little lamp by her bed. She was watching him from under her lashes, waiting for him, and he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want this to be awkward though, and it was heading that direction remarkably quickly. 

“Brittany,” he said. Jyn paused and glanced at him, brows furrowed. 

“What?” 

“Brittany. For the baby. It’s a classic.” He knew she would disagree. So far she hadn’t liked any of the more common names they had come across. 

Jyn groaned. “There were three girls in my grad class called Brittany. We called them the Brittanies. I’m good, thanks.” 

She peeled her shirt off, leaving her in just a tank top that stretched over her belly. Cassian followed suit, unbuckling his belt and pulling it off. He stacked it next to his shoes and straightened up to see Jyn watching him, her lip between her teeth again. This time, though, her expression was almost… hungry. 

She cleared her throat. “What about Emma? It was the most popular baby name this year.” 

Cassian snorted, trying not to watch her undo her pony and shake her long, dark hair out. “So you want her to be Emma E.? And then when she makes friends with three other Emmas she can be part of the Emmas?” 

She stuck her tongue out at him and went to the bathroom attached to her room, though she left the door open so he could see her rinsing her face. He followed her like there was a string between them and leaned on the bathroom door frame. 

“Fine, not Emma,” she said, grabbing her toothbrush. She looked from her toothbrush to Cassian and back again, then opened her mirror-fronted medicine cabinet and rummaged around. She pulled out a toothbrush still in the packaging and handed it to him like it was the most normal thing in the world, though it struck Cassian as quite possibly one of the most domestic things they could have done. 

He felt like he was living in a dream. They were standing in Jyn’s light blue bedroom late on a Saturday, brushing their teeth together and talking about baby names. A distant part of him, that part that was still a soldier and still expected his life to be one battle after the other, marvelled at the turn of events that had brought him here. It was almost disorienting, how much his world had shifted around Jyn. 

“Are you okay?” She asked, and Cassian realized he was just staring at the toothbrush in his hand. He looked up at her, at the concern furrowing her forehead, at the timid way she was reaching out to him, and the disorientation was gone. He pushed a strand of dark hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear, liking being able to touch it now that it wasn’t bound up in it’s constant pony, and smiled at her. 

“Yeah,” he said. He opened his toothbrush and took the toothpaste from her when she offered it. 

“Junia,” he suggested, his mouth full of froth. 

“Wha?” She wasn’t much better. He spit and rinsed and she followed suit. 

“Junia. It’s an old Spanish name. You could shorten it to June or Juni…” 

Jyn considered, and gave a sharp nod. “I’ll put it on the list. It is pretty.” 

But they were standing beside the bed and Cassian’s repertoire of names to debate over to keep them both from thinking of the inevitable had run dry. He was still wearing all of his clothes, Jyn was mostly clothed, and both of them were staring at her bed like it was about to jump up and attack them. He could damn near feel the tension in Jyn from beside her, and he definitely felt it when she let it go. 

“Fuck it,” she muttered, and then her hand was on his shoulder, spinning him to face her and her mouth was on his. It was a short kiss, one he barely had time to register and respond to, and when she pulled away she looked anywhere but at him. She opened her mouth and he knew she was about to apologize, which he absolutely couldn’t have, so he kissed her again. 

She mewled a noise somewhere between desire and surprise and then relaxed against him, her hands coming up to wrap around his shoulders and keep them tight together. He wrapped an arm around her waist and tangled the fingers of the other hand in the hair at the nape of her neck, revelling in her loose, long strands. She sighed and her mouth opened further, an opportunity he took full advantage of, slanting his lips over hers and exploring her mouth with his tongue. 

When they broke apart they were gasping, both wide eyed and blinking. 

“Okay?” Jyn asked, her worry evident in that one little question. 

He wished he had the words to tell her how okay it was. “So, so okay,” he said with fervor, and was rewarded with her smile. Her smile was broken a second later by a face-splitting yawn, and Cassian knew that whatever was happening between them could probably wait until morning. 

“Come on,” he said, “let’s get you to bed.” 

She whined and attempted to protest but her movements were already slowing. Cassian could feel fatigue creeping up on him too; it was draining to be so emotionally raw for such a long time, and when it finally came to an end all he wanted to do was sleep. He reached for his shirt and pulled it off, not missing the way Jyn’s eyes lingered on his form. He had always considered himself a bit too skinny, a bit too narrow through the shoulders, but the way she looked at him made him feel like that didn’t really matter. He reached for his jeans as well and let them fall, standing before her in only his Saxx. She looked down appreciatively, her gaze lingering. 

“I thought you wanted to go to sleep,” she said, looking pointedly downwards and then back up. 

“Well, there’s want and then want, you know,” he retorted. She grinned and stripped her own pants off, leaving her in just the tank top and a pair of very brief black briefs. He took in her legs, the curve of her hips, the way she rested her hands on her bump like she was simultaneously trying to hide her body and also trying to look nonchalant, and he couldn’t help but lean forward and kiss her again. It was a softer kiss, longer and lingering so he could memorize the taste of her lips and the way she sighed under him. 

They settled into bed beside each other with far less awkwardness than he had anticipated, with Jyn turning off the light and rolling over to snuggle up against him. She set her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her, leaning sideways so he could press a kiss to her forehead. 

“I’m glad you stayed,” she whispered into the dark, and he hoped she could feel his smile. 

“I thought I told you already - I’d go anywhere with you,” he said, and she chuckled. 

“You should have kissed me that day at the park, you know.” 

“And at the doctor’s office after the ultrasound, right?” 

“Yeah, that would have been good too.” 

Cassian groaned and Jyn giggled at his discomfiture, a sound he wasn’t sure he had ever heard her make before. “I knew it!” He exclaimed. 

“You could have kissed me too, you know,” he pointed out when her laughter subsided. 

“I just did.” 

“Before, I mean.” 

“I could have, yeah, but I wanted to see how long it would take you to make the first move.” 

He was smiling so hard his cheeks hurt a little. “Probably forever,” he said. 

She hummed agreement and yawned again. “Well I’m glad it didn’t take forever,” she whispered. “Good night, Cass.” 

“Good night,” he whispered back, and kissed her when she tilted her face up for it. “Good night, bebe,” he added, and he could feel Jyn smile against him. 

*

There might be some experiences that were better than waking up with Jyn Erso tangled around him, snoring quietly into his ear, hot, musty breath on his neck, but at the moment he couldn’t think of any. 

Then his phone buzzed. Cassian could feel in his bones that it was going to be something that wrecked his day, given that it was a Sunday and he was happy, but old habits made him extract himself from Jyn’s grasp and reach for his pants on the floor. 

Kay: I think I’ve got the Senator. 

Cassian: Can it wait until Monday? 

Kay: Why? Are you ill?

Cassian: No, it’s my day off. 

Kay: That has never stopped you before.

Cassian: I’ll call you, hold on. 

His phone buzzed with the incoming call and Jyn rolled over, mumbling and slowly waking up. She opened her eyes, glaring at him like he was playing the tuba in her room. 

“It’s Kay,” he whispered, “he has info on the Senator.” 

Her eyes cleared a little and she sat up. She reached past Cassian for her own phone on the bedside table and opened a note app. 

“Put it on speaker,” she ordered. 

“Good morning Cassian, and I presume Jyn,” came Kay’s voice over the phone. Jyn shot Cassian a look and he shrugged. Of course Kay knew. 

“Good morning,” she said, sighing in defeat. 

“Cassian, I’ve been going through the data we’ve been collecting and I think I’ve found a connection. The leader of the Separatists, Dooku, has ties to the Senator. We need to dig a bit further, but I’ve been collecting metadata from their communications and from the quantity of communication I am sure that they at least know each other, if are not working together.” 

Cassian contemplated. “But why would the Separatists be working with the Senate they’re trying to separate from?” 

“I have been analyzing the Separatists’ influence on the current political clime, and their appearance correlates with an increase in partisanship and an increase in union lobbying actions across the country.” 

“That doesn’t make sense though - creating instability doesn’t help the Senator, does it?” Jyn asked. 

“If he can posit himself as the sole person who can bring peace and stability, it might,” Kay pointed out. 

Jyn and Cassian looked at each other and Cassian could see her thoughts tracking along the same lines as his. “Kay, has the Senator filed intent for the next Chancellor campaign?” 

The sound of clicking buttons filled the room, and Kay hummed. “Not yet, but there has been an increased flow of communication among the Senator’s staff this morning, and the deadline for candidate declarations is midnight tonight.” 

“Keep an eye on it, and get more details on the link between Dooku and Palpatine. We need to know if they’re working together, and why.” 

“There is also the matter of the Trade Federation. I need you to gather more data, but I believe that the Trade Federation aims to have a similar destabilizing effect in Palpatine’s home district so that the people turn to him for leadership.” 

“You think they’re all working together,” Jyn stated. 

“Yes, but I have no proof. The flow of information seems to support the hypothesis, so if we can find proof…” 

“We’re on it. Link Bodhi in and tell him to press on the Senator’s people. I’ll go after the Trade Federation harder and Jyn will get Han to lead us to higher ups in the Separatists. Let me know when Palpatine decides to put in for Chancellor,” Cassian ordered. Kay hummed and hung up, ready to execute his orders. Jyn put her phone down and she and Cassian shared a moment of silence, then she flopped backwards in bed. 

“Well, there goes our lazy Sunday,” she muttered. 

Cassian smiled so wide his face hurt. “What did you have planned for our lazy Sunday?” He asked, laying back down beside her and looping an arm around her, marvelling in the fact that he could. 

“Bacon,” she said, “like a lot of bacon. A lot. And maybe a milkshake. Definitely a milk shake.” 

“You realize that means we have to get up, right?” 

She groaned, and her stomach rumbled. She patted it. “Alright kid, I get it. Get dressed Andor, it’s bacon time.”


	12. 6 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Cassian has a headache, Jyn gives people headaches, and Kay explains how he got through a headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late update!! I know I haven't been keeping to anything like a regular posting schedule, but it's here so yay! Also I'm not entirely happy with this chapter but it does accomplish the purpose I had for it, so there's that. Let me know what you think! 
> 
> Also, big time jump! Don't worry, we'll explain some of it soon enough. 
> 
> \- AO

His head was pounding like he had had far too much to drink the previous night, but Cassian didn’t remember drinking anything at all. He and Jyn had been at her house - damn near their house, if he were being honest - and he had rubbed her sore ankles and they’d laid in bed watching the baby press against her skin. So why was his head pounding like the inside of a tycho drum? It was darker in the bedroom than it usually was in the morning, and Jyn wasn’t curled up against him. He reached out towards her side of the bed to locate her and his hand stopped up short, tugging painfully on a rope that linked his two hands. 

The fog cleared from his mind. He had been walking from the Whills Cafe to the office, bringing back a tea for Jyn and his own usual coffee. They had come from the little alley just beside the Whills, and he had been overwhelmed by them. He had fought, but they had bagged him quickly and it hadn’t been much of a fight. He remembered being dragged into a vehicle but they had knocked him out too soon for him to track where they were going. 

His hands were tied, and when he lifted them towards his face he found the bag that was making his vision so dark. Cassian’s military training kicked in before he could begin to panic, and he began to assess. He had decent range of movement in his arms, enough to pull the bag off his head and reach down to his ankles to find them tied as well. Once the bag was off he looked around, rubbing his eyes with both fists.

The room he was in was dark as well, so dark that there was no change in visuals with the bag off. He felt around instead, noting that he was sitting, his back was against what felt like metal, and the floor felt like diamond-pattern construction metal. It had to be a closed room and either there were no windows or they were covered. He couldn’t hear anything from outside either, but on the plus side there didn’t seem to be anything in the room with him. 

Once he had figured that he was relatively safe, Cassian got down to work. He could reach his feet, so he began to untangle the knot that held his ankles together. With his ankles free he set to work on his hands. Whoever had tied him had done a piss poor job, leaving his hands with enough rope between them that he could turn one sideways and work on the other. He tacked another note into his growing mental file - they were not military, nor did he think they’d done this before. 

They had searched him though, and his phone, pocket knife, and wallet were all gone. He was at least dressed, which didn’t leave him with much options but it was better than nothing. They hadn’t taken his belt off, nor removed his shoelaces, which were rookie mistakes. Cassian hooked the two ropes that had tied his limbs through his belt in case they might be useful, and carefully stood up. His knees were sore, indicating that he had been sitting for some time. 

He put one hand on the wall and started walking, keeping the other hand in front of him for the inevitable corner. When he found it he turned around, switching hands and beginning to count. With one foot in front of the other he paced off the length of the room, then turned again and confirmed his count. At the corner he turned and did the same to the next wall, then the next. There was no door, but one of the shorter walls had two vertical bars in the centre of it that would most likely open that wall. Given the corrugation of the sheet metal walls, the size of the room and the door, Cassian would put money on him being in a shipping container. As far as he could tell, it was also empty. 

The next logical step was to try the doors, but as he suspected the metal bars only had a centimeter or two of movement before he could hear the clear klink of a padlock. Cassian felt along the tops and bottoms of each door, but found nothing. If it was a container, he knew that he was at the mercy of his captors to open it - there was going to be no way for him to break out of a solid metal box. It would be better for him to be ready when they came back for him. 

If they came back for him. Cassian was military, he knew the lengths that people were willing to go to in the name of self preservation. They were so close to bagging the Senator that Palpatine must have felt them breathing down his neck, and Cassian should have expected that a man who was willing to destabilize an entire nation just to put himself in power would be willing to have a few insignificant investigators killed. 

The others. Shit. Cassian had no way to contact them, and he had no way to know if they were safe. Maybe they were in containers to either side of him, tied up and in the dark and - Jyn was due in six weeks. She was more than eight months along and if they had captured her or she had fought… 

Cassian braced himself in a corner of the container and took a deep breath, fighting down his panic and turning back to his training. He knew how to deal with this. There was nothing he could do for Jyn just yet, and he needed to be calm so that he could get out of here. Which meant not thinking about the danger that she could be in. 

He calmed himself and set up for optimal position for when his captors came back. He stayed far enough into the container that they wouldn’t immediately see him when the doors opened, and then settled in to wait. 

3 weeks previous

“Loraline,” Jyn yelled, her voice carrying through his open office door to Cassian, who was working on painstakingly tracing the new connections Bodhi had established within the Senator’s office. 

“It’ll be shortened to Laura,” Bodhi yelled from his office on the other side of the suite, “you hated Laura.” 

“That’s true,” he heard Jyn mutter. He smiled to himself. 

“What about Kaylee?” Kay suggested. 

“Sounds a lot like I’m naming her after you.” 

“You would be setting her up for success,” Kay said, and even Cassian had to stick his head out of his office to stare at the analyst. 

“Was that a joke?” Jyn asked. “I didn’t know you had it in you.” 

Kay snorted and retreated to his office, his lanky body held very straight. 

“He builds up to it,” Bodhi said from his own office doorway, “it takes him about six months to percolate a joke.” 

The three of them grinned at each other, and Cassian noted now nice it was to have a quiet moment in the middle of the hectic commotion that was this investigation. Things were beginning to come to a head on the Senator’s case, and that meant overtime, working far too much, and taking far too much of it home with them. They were all going to need a week or two off when this case was over. 

“What about Valeria?” Bodhi suggested. 

“Valeria…” Jyn looked over at Cassian and raised her eyebrows. “I like it,” she said, clearly asking if he did too. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about his opinion having any influence on her choices, but she kept asking him so he kept answering. 

“Me too,” he said. 

“Alright, I’ll put it on the list.” 

Cassian stepped out of his office far enough that he could lean down and kiss her softly. 

Present

A crash outside the door wook Cassian up. He stood up from where he’d fallen, trying to get his bearings. It was still dark in the container but he could hear yelling and the thudding of things hitting flesh outside. The fighting got closer to the door and Cassian heard a shotgun fire once, quite close to him and then it was quiet. He could hear heavy breathing and he had to decide whether to chance that the people who had triumphed were friendly or not. 

A muffled conversation took place outside. He strained to hear it, but could only make out that two people were speaking. Then there was some grunting and dragging noises, and one of the people asked a question. The answer was short and apparently unsatisfactory, as the next noise was something hitting a body and a yowl of pain. The question was repeated. 

A moment later the bolts were sliding out of their homes on the door to his container and light was flooding in. Cassian’s eyes burned but he forced his way through it and charged. 

“I will knock you out, boy,” a husky voice said, and it registered that he knew that voice. He stopped and blinked his watering eyes. 

“It's him,” the voice called, and a moment later a small ball of person hit him in the chest. Jyn was out of breath, heavily pregnant, and covered in blood. She hugged him so tight he couldn’t breathe and then she leaned back and smacked him in the shoulder. 

“What was that for?” He asked, rubbing the offended spot. 

“You got yourself kidnapped! I am way too big to be rescuing you, Andor!” She berated, resting a hand on top of her stomach. Cassian registered quiet chuckles coming from past her and looked around. 

They were in a container yard, as he had thought, with containers stacked three and four high around them. It was evening, though he didn’t know what day it was, and there were five people in various states of disarray sprawled out on the ground. Cassian didn’t have to ask to know that these were the people who had taken him. The chuckle, though, had come from a person still standing, and one whom Cassian was not surprised to see. Bodhi stood a short distance away, his back to them and a pistol in his hand as he watched the narrow lane that led to Cassian’s container. He flashed a grin over his shoulder at Cassian and kept to his watch. 

Saw Gerrera had let him out, and he was holding the shotgun that Cassian had heard go off a few moments earlier. He looked Cassian up and down with his characteristic bulldog-esque scowl, and nodded at him. Kay was a few steps beyond that, calmly searching one of the unconscious - Cassian hoped they were unconscious - men’s pockets. And on the opposite corner from Bodhi stood Luke Skywalker, looking as excied about this as he did about most things. 

“I triangulated your position from the tracker in your wallet,” Kay explained, digging through the pocket of another man. Cassian hadn’t asked, which mean Kay was proud of this and would share it anyways. Cassian also wasn’t surprised that Kay had bugged him. He woudln’t have expected any less. 

“When they took your wallet I figured you had to be nearby, so I called in reinforcements. I tried to get her to stay at the office, but she didn’t listen.” There was only one she he could be referring to, the one that was glaring daggers at him from her position firmly entrenched by Cassian’s side. 

“You guys came for me,” Cassian said, more than a little dazed. 

“Of course we did, you idiot,” Jyn said, directing her mighty scowl at him instead. 

“He’s probably delirious. He hasn’t eaten in more than twenty-four hours,” Kay pointed out. 

“I’ve been gone a full day?” 

“Yes. Now let’s get out of here before they come back,” Luke suggested, and the rest followed his lead out through the container yard and back to a waiting van. Cassian marvelled at his friends. This was no mean feat, and that they needed to bring in Saw and Luke meant it was bigger than even he had suspected. Once they were all safely in the car he took a breath. 

“So this must be a good story,” he said.


	13. Jyn (6 Weeks Remaining)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn phones a friend, Kay finds a phone, and Cassian's phone gets a bit wet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back!!! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update this. I could cite any number of excuses - teaching practicum, graduating university, my first teaching job, etc, etc - but really I got massive writers block on this story and struggled to get past it. On the plus side though, this is the first time I have ever gotten past writer's block on a long story, so yay!! I promise it won't be another six months or whatever until I update this again. It should go pretty quick now. 
> 
> Thanks so much for your continued comments of support and encouragement, they mean the world to me, and they are the reason I kept trying.

Jyn watched the clock tick down the seconds. Thirty…twenty… fifteen… They were slowing down from their already lethargic crawl. She was as fidgety as a five year old hopped up on candy by the time the clock hit 0 and ticked over to 3 pm. 

“Kay!” She bellowed after a cursory glance at the door showed Cassian was still not forthcoming. 

The analyst stuck his head out of his dark back room (which Jyn privately called his den of sorrows, not that she would ever share that with Kay) and scowled at her. “What is it?” He asked. 

“Cassian went out for coffee two hours ago and hasn’t come back. He didn’t have any meetings scheduled,” she added, forestalling Kay’s comments, “and I haven’t been able to reach his phone either.” 

Kay’s frown shifted slightly from annoyed to worried, and his head pulled back. When he didn’t say anything or come back out, Jyn levered herself out of her chair and followed him into his room. 

Kay’s office looked like it should have housed either an amateur photographer’s darkroom or a serial killer. Bulletin boards with documents and tags pinned to them lined the walls and one entire side was dominated by a bank of computer screens and a single keyboard. The lighting was kept low and the floor space between the cabinetry that ringed the room was clear so Kay could roll back and forth. Jyn didn’t know how he could look at that many monitors without going blind or getting motion sickness, but he seemed to revel in it. 

Kay was sitting in front of his main monitor currently, typing furiously. He flicked open windows out onto the other screens as he went, tracking information in scrolling lines. 

“I have his phone GPS, it’s moving. He’s travelling,” Kay said when Jyn walked in, though his eyes never left his screen. 

“Where?” Jyn asked distractedly, already opening her own phone to call Bodhi. 

“They’ve gone south. They’re almost out of the city,” Kay replied. He had Cassian’s tracker up on his main screen and was firing open windows onto the surrounding screens faster than Jyn could keep up. They were all analysis windows that Jyn couldn’t be bothered to understand, scrolling data feeds that pinged once in a while and pulled a line of information out until Kay had what he was looking for. Meanwhile, Jyn had reached Bodhi. 

“Hey Jyn, what’s up, I’m about to go-” 

“Cancel it. Cassian’s been kidnapped,” Jyn cut him off. 

Bodhi sucked in a sharp gasp. “Be back ASAP.” He hung up, no questions asked, and Jyn appreciated his dedication in an abstract way that she knew would hit her full force after most of her mind wasn’t occupied with the current crisis. 

She could feel herself slipping into the militaristic mindset Saw had drilled into her from an early age just as if she had never left it, though she had spent the last few years trying to do just that. She let herself go there, remembering the paranoia and suspicion he had taught her. 

“Kay, who has him?” She asked. None of the three routes they were pursuing in their hunt for the Senator were very pleased with them currently, but it could be the Separatists, the Trade Federation, or the Senator’s own people, though she doubted that last one. That would tie him much too close to this, if it ever got out. It could also be third party, she thought, and started scrolling through her phone for her adoptive father’s contact.

“Increased keyword traffic this morning between the Separatists and the Senator’s people would indicate collusion, but no concrete evidence in their data…” 

“Saw,” Jyn said when the man picked up his phone, “Cassian’s been kidnapped.” 

Her adoptive father grunted as if he weren’t surprised. “Indications?” He asked. 

“Maybe the Separatists. Seems the most likely,” she replied. 

“You’ve been investigating the Senator,” he said, like he had known all along and they hadn’t had to sign confidentiality agreements just to stop this very thing from happening. 

“How did you - no, of course you know. Do you have anything?” 

“Five minutes. I’ll make some calls. You’re at your office?” 

“Yeah.” 

“I’ll be there.” He hung up and Jyn breathed a small sigh of relief. If anyone could help them it would be Saw. 

“Well that’s disconcerting,” Kay said, and Jyn thought he was talking about Saw knowing about their investigations until she turned and saw him frantically typing. 

“What?” 

“Cassian’s tracker just stopped moving.” 

“Where?” 

“In the middle of the river.” 

Jyn’s stomach dropped and she thought she might puke. She put a hand on her baby bump, feeling the reassuring movements of her child, and tried to think logically.

“Okay, so they dumped his phone. Makes sense,” she said, refusing to consider the other possibility. 

“Switching to backup tracker,” Kay said, because of course he had Cassian tagged some other way. They watched with bated breath as the information loaded and they saw Cassian’s little dot still moving along the map. Even Kay let out a worried breath. They kept their eyes on the map, trying to parse Cassian’s destination until the office doorbell rang and Jyn had to tear herself away to go get it. 

Saw arrived first, since his worksite was so close to their office, and he strode in as he usually did: big, thumping steps and a slanted sideways gaze that assessed Jyn’s state of being from top to bottom. 

“My contacts in the Separatists say there is a transport ship leaving this afternoon from the Pier 43. There’s been increased security that struck our friend as odd,” he said, and Jyn nodded. 

“Kay, did you hear that?” She called. 

“Got it.” She didn’t think to question Saw, her body and mind reverting to their old dynamic of the soldier executing orders. 

“Their current route could take them to the pier, yes,” Kay called back a moment later. 

“ETA?” 

“Thirty minutes approximate.” 

“Good, let’s go,” Jyn said, and moved as if to grab her coat. Saw cleared his throat. 

“I think not.” 

Jyn opened her mouth to argue with him, but stopped when the man held up a hand. 

“Have you forgotten everything I have taught you?” He asked. “Do you have tactical information about the abductors? How many are there? Are they well equipped? Have they issued ransom? Will action on your part alert the Senator? Come on, girl, I know he is important to you, but a misstep here will result in more harm than good, and you know it.” 

Jyn chewed her lip, holding Saw’s gaze and trying to fight her own feelings. Everything in her was screaming at her to go find Cassian now, get him out of there this second and bring him home. But Saw was right, if she did she’d be playing right into his captors’ hands, and she didn’t even know who they were. 

“Alright,” she said begrudgingly, and the tension bled out of Saw’s shoulders. 

“Good. Now, where is your analyst friend?” 

They spent the next few hours locked in a tense holding pattern as Bodhi arrived - with Luke, to Jyn’s surprise, but then Bodhi reminded her that Skywalker was former military and a friend of Cassian’s, so of course he had come along - and Kay began to put the puzzle pieces together. 

They got eyes on the van that had taken Cassian almost three hours after they had first realized he was missing, and Saw had been right. They had taken him to a container yard at the pier, where a large shipping vessel was docked and being readied for departure. Jyn’s nausea redoubled at that; they were going to take Cassian, her Cassian, and put him on a ship to who knows where. Her lower lip was raw from her chewing on it, and Saw eventually took her hand so she would stop worrying at her fingernails. 

Once Kay had broken into the cameras at the container yard, though, they began to get the information they were lacking. They couldn’t pinpoint exactly which container Cassian was being kept in, but they could see the general area that the group of armed guards kept to, and could figure that he’d be in one of the stack there. They watched the guards for a few hours into the night, counting and recounting as one set of guards came to replace the first group. They only kept five armed men in the area at any time, and two more at the gates to the container yard. 

“Seven, Saw. We can take seven,” Jyn tried at one point, and her father shot her a glare that told her she still wasn’t thinking clearly. He didn’t bother responding. 

They watched the shipping containers into the early hours of the morning, until Luke and Bodhi were curled up on the couch in the lobby and the inside of Kay’s coffee cup looked like it had been coated in mud from being refilled so often. A couple hours before dawn Saw finally shook out of the weird stasis he had seemed to be holding himself in and straightened, stretching stiff muscles as he went. 

“Now will do, I think,” he said. Kay got up and followed him without a word, grabbing his laptop as he went. Jyn brought up the rear, shaking Luke and Bodhi awake on the way. Saw’s van was waiting on the curb outside, and as the five of them piled in Jyn couldn’t quite parse Saw’s plan. No one asked her not to go with them though, perhaps sensing that it would be dangerous to even suggest, so she climbed in and immediately began interrogating Saw. 

“What’s the plan? We’ve been up all night, those’ll be fresh guards by the time we get there and we’re outnumbered,” she said. 

“They will not be fresh guards, were you not counting?” 

Jyn blushed slightly, because no, she hadn’t been counting. She had been too busy worrying about Cassian to keep track of the guard’s shift rotation. 

“We will be arriving just before these guards are relieved, which will put them at dawn, at the end of their shifts, and having just spent the night with no complications. They will be lax. And we may be outnumbered, but we’re never outgunned. Under the seat, Mr. Skywalker,” Saw called. Luke scrambled around in the back and scraped a heavy box across the floor until he could pry it open. Luke whistled at the content. 

“I’m pretty sure these are illegal,” he said. 

“Then it will be best if you don’t tell anyone,” Saw replied, and that ended that train of conversation. Jyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to get out of her own head, forget that she had a personal connection to Cassian and she was worried sick about him, and treat this like one of the many exercises Saw had forced her through as a child. She knew how these things worked, she just needed to act like it.

“We take the two on the gate without getting out of the van,” she said, and was rewarded with Saw’s nod, “and then go in quiet.” 

“Yes. They didn’t cover their traces nearly well enough for professionals - no false routes, waiting far too long to be rid of the cell phone, they clearly didn’t search him for a secondary tracking device - so if we are fast and quiet we may be able to take them.” 

“May?” Bodhi asked, his voice belying his stress. 

“May. We are at several disadvantages, Mr. Rook, as we have never worked together, I have no knowledge of your strengths or weaknesses, and you very well may panic in combat. We have also been up all night and are personally attached to the victim. But we will do the be best we can.” 

Bodhi didn’t say anything to that, but Jyn though she heard him swallow audibly. The rest of the drive to the container yard was tense and quiet, giving them all too much time to think. Kay kept his laptop on and kept the camera feeds from the yard going so they could track the guards’ movements, but Saw had been right. The guards were quiet and patrolled less often towards the dawn, clearly not expecting any trouble. Eventually, even Jyn had to put her head back on her seat and close her eyes for a few minutes, worn out by the day. 

She woke to Saw’s hand on her knee, shaking her slightly. She started awake and looked around. They had to be close to Cassian’s location. One of the men in the back seat tapped her shoulder with something and Jyn craned around to see Luke handing her a pistol. She took it and checked it mechanically, her training kicking back in and the procedure running through her like muscle memory. 

“Here we go,” Saw said, and turned into the gates to the container yard. The two guards were exactly where they were supposed to be, standing in neutral black uniforms either side of the gate. They were armed with small sidearms, strapped down to look professional, but Jyn knew better. The way they immediately reached for their weapons when the van came in was a dead give away that they were scared of something, though she did give them credit for not actually pulling their weapons. Yet, anyways. 

Both guards approached the van when it rolled to a stop, one to either side in another amateur move. Saw and Jyn rolled down their respective windows. The guard on Jyn’s side approached cautiously, letting the one on Saw’s side do the talking. That one leaned in, trying to appear friendly, and greeted Saw. 

“Good morning sir, can we help you with something?” He asked. 

“I think you probably can,” Saw said, his voice all pleasant familiarity. Jyn would have snorted if it wouldn’t have given away the game. The guard on her side leered at her and leaned further into her window space. Jyn hated men who did that, as if the fact that she was a small woman and especially that she was pregnant meant she was of course harmless. 

“Well what can we do for you?” Saw’s guard asked, and glanced up at his buddy across the car, leaning into Jyn’s window. That momentary distraction was all Jyn and Saw needed. Jyn sprang into action, her body flowing through the motions like it had been only a moment since the last time instead of several years. She grabbed her guard by the hair with one hand, pulling him further into the van and off balance as her other hand pulled her gun out from its hiding spot tucked between her leg and the center console. She leaned as far from the guard as she could to get more swinging room, and slammed her pistol’s butt into the side of his head. She reared back and did it a second time without pausing to see if her first strike had been enough. As Saw had always taught her, insurance never hurt. The guard went limp in her window, and she turned to cover Saw. There was no need, as she had expected. 

Saw pushed his prone guard out the window to collapse in a boneless heap and Jyn followed suit. Her adoptive father climbed out of the van and searched the guard for a moment until he found the controls to the gate. He clicked it open, stuck the remote into a pocket, and then they were off. 

“Alright, first step good,” Bodhi breathed from the back. “Jyn, you kicked ass.” 

She smiled her tight lipped smile back at him. “This isn’t my first rodeo,” she admitted. She could see the questions her friend had, but Kay shushed them. 

“Park here,” he ordered. Saw pulled over and the four of them went over their weapons once more while Kay consulted his video feeds. 

“They don’t seem to have been alerted,” he surmised, and a little bit of relief frissoned through Jyn. Maybe they could pull this off. 

“Perfect. Now, do not kill unless necessary,” Saw reminded them, though by the looks he received it seemed he had been the only one thinking of possibly killing. “Rook, Skywalker, take the far side. Loop around. Do not catch us in your crossfire, if it comes to that. Kay, you’re with me. Jyn, behind us.” 

He held up a hand again to forestall her arguments. “You will not fight me on this, daughter of mine. You are pregnant,and I intend to meet my granddaughter. I have let you come this far and I continue to allow you to be here because you are well trained. Do not prove me wrong.” 

She bit her lip, considering arguing, but gave it up. He was right, and if it had been anyone else she would have been running a serious liability assessment by now. She fell in behind Saw and Kay and followed them as they snuck, feet light and breathing raspy, around the containers. 

They came up on the first guard completely unaware, and Saw slammed his shotgun’s base into the back of the man’s neck, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. He went down hard, and Kay dragged him out of the way. Saw stuck his head out around the container, waited a second, then nodded. They followed him out from around the corner. 

The fight was a blur, as they always were, but Jyn saw Bodhi and Luke dispatch a guard on their side with a casual blow to the head, then the second guard spotted them and started yelling. Bodhi leapt on him, his arms scrabbling to get a hold on the man, and he managed to get an arm around his neck. Kay meanwhile had one lanky limb around another guard but was losing his fight, so Jyn ran to his aid. She flipped her gun over in her hand and used it like a truncheon, coming up under the man’s chin and knocking his head back with a grunt. He too went down. Jyn glanced up at Kay to check if he was alright, but besides his wide eyes and gasping he seemed fine. She straightened and looked for her next target. 

She registered a blur of movement from the corner of one eye and was just turning to confront it when Saw’s shotgun went off, closer to her than she thought he had been. The blast took the last guard full in the chest, and he stared down at the blood blossoming on his dark clothing with something like surprise before fell face forward. He had been close enough to Jyn that the spray from his wounds coated the side of her face. She wiped a hand over her eyes, trying to keep the blood from dripping into them, and looked around. She clocked Bodhi and Luke in a pile, gasping over the guard Bodhi still had in a headlock. The man was conscious but between Bodhi’s grip on his neck and Luke pinning his limbs down, he wasn’t going anywhere. Jyn let her gaze move on, checking Saw and Kay again before she came to the conclusion that they were all alright. 

So she let her feet carry her on, going to the guard Bodhi and Luke had in their grips and leaning down so she could get her face on a level with his. It was difficult to do with her belly in the way, but she and her anger managed it. 

“Cassian Andor. Where is he?” She asked. The man’s mouth worked a moment but then he just spat at her, his spittle dribbling down his chin as he didn’t have enough power to reach her. Point made though. Jyn raised her arm back and punched him in the kidneys. 

“Let’s try that again,” she said. 

Behind her, she heard the bars of a container being shifted and then a door open up. The sound of running feet followed it and then Saw’s voice. 

“I will knock you out, boy.” Jyn was already turning when he called, “It’s him.” And then she was running. She collided with Cassian, simultaneously wanting to hug him and berate him and kiss him senseless. She settled for a combination of the two, hugging him and then hitting him lightly in the shoulder. He looked down at her, dazed and rumpled and the most gorgeous thing she had ever seen. 

“What was that for?” He asked, indignant. Jyn just glared at him, trying to think past the words she most wanted to say. She wanted to tell him she loved him, hold on to him until everything was back to normal again and they were home and he was hers. Instead, she settled for something a bit less likely to terrify him. 

“You got yourself kidnapped! I’m way too big to be rescuing you, Andor!” She said, and hugged him again. He smelled like home, she noted. The thought scared her, but not nearly as much as it used to. He was her home, now, and she wasn’t going to let him go.


	14. 4 Weeks Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the baby kicks, Jyn screams, and Cassian is defeated by Alan wrenches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're in the home stretch now folks! I'm not sure how many more chapters there'll be but I'm only planning about 3 more, I believe.

“I was military for damn near a decade. We took shit apart and put it back together constantly. We stripped and retrofitted humvees, for god’s sake. How is a fucking IKEA crib defeating me?” Cassian stood back, hands on his hips, glaring at the mess of parts and friendly cartoon instructions that made no goddamn sense. Jyn heard his outburst from the kitchen and popped her head into the doorway. 

“So… you wanna tell me how that meeting went yet or should I let you get a bit angrier first? That was the most expletives I've ever heard you use, but if you need a bit more fuming time I'll just stay out here.” She blinked wide, innocent eyes at him, the picture of the devoted housewife with her hair tied back and a neat blue dress on - all that would fit over her ever expanding stomach, according to her. She was also right. Cassian sighed and some of his anger dropped off his shoulders. He sat down beside the mess of crib. 

“It went fucking awful, as you might have gathered.” 

Jyn came in and slowly, with great effort and a modicum of grunting, sat down beside him. Once she was established in the floor she looked over, piercing him again with those bright green eyes. 

“So?” 

It took him a second to realize what she was waiting for. 

“The Senator says we don't have enough concrete evidence. Even though we know - we just know - that Palpatine funded those idiots who abducted me, we can't link him to it. Increased data traffic could mean any number of things,” Cassian mimicked, his high pitched and breathy imitation of Mothma truly one of his worst. Jyn smiled though, a quick quirk of the lips before she nodded thoughtfully. 

“She's not wrong, Cass,” she said, “we don't have any concrete evidence. He's too slippery for that. Even with his nomination papers in to run for Chancellor, nothing's come out of the woodwork. No scandals, no nothing.” 

“And Mothma can't take him down on suspicion alone, or she would have already. I know. But still…” 

“It's aggravating.” That was putting it mildly. Cassian prided himself on his ability to remain detached and neutral. He was anything but in this case, and it wasn't only because Palpatine had had him scooped like an untrained child, right off the street. The man threatened to destabilize everything Cassian had worked for, everything he had fought for. Why had he gone to war, spent ten years in the military, if it was only going to lead to corruption and the fall of the republic? He couldn't see that happen. 

“What happens if it takes us another six months to catch him? What if we don’t catch him before the election?” Cassian asked. Jyn reached over and touched his cheek. 

“We will. We just keep going, right?” 

Cassian hummed and tried to distract himself with the IKEA crib again. It was no good, the pictures didn’t make sense and he was about as far from in the mood for this as one could get. 

“Adan,” Jyn said suddenly. Cassian glanced at her. She let a small smile slip out and watched him from beneath her bangs. Even now, after everything they'd done for each other, she still worried it might not be enough.

“For the baby? Isn't Aiden a boy’s name?” He asked, needling her carefully. 

“No, Adan. A-D-A-N. It means little fire,” Jyn said. 

Cassian lay back on the floor amidst the wreckage of hex bolts and comically small dowel pegs and set his hands behind his head. 

“I like it,” he proclaimed, “Adan Erso. Nice ring to it.” And if a little bit of his head muttered, ‘so did Adan Andor’ well then he would never let on about that, would he. 

Jyn carefully flopped down beside him, arranging her belly so it was against him and she could put her arm under her head. Cassian scooted down a bit further so he could rub the baby bump. 

“What do you think, bebé? Adan?” He drew lazy circles over Jyn’s taught skin and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. Jyn watched him through half lidded eyes. 

“Nothing. How about Valeria?” He waited, but no providencial kick came. “Junia?” 

He glanced back up at Jyn. “Nothing. I don’t think she likes our choices,” he said, and then felt his face flush a little when he noticed he had said ‘our’. Jyn just smiled though. 

“Or she’s taking a nap, Andor. She’s a baby. They sleep like… all the time.” 

“Hm. Maybe she just can’t hear me.” Cassian bent further so his mouth was beside Jyn’s stomach. Jyn shifted, propping herself up on her elbows so she could watch him. Cassian met her eyes and let the hand that had been rubbing circles on her stomach over her dress drift down to her thigh, where her skin was bared by the hem of her skirt. She sucked in a breath but didn’t say anything, and when he paused on her upper thigh she gave him the smallest of nods. Cassian’s body felt like it had been lit aflame. 

He brought his hand up under dress, bringing the edge of her skirt up with him, until his fingers were splayed over her belly again. He rubbed soft circles, carefully dragging her skirt up until he could see the entirety of her baby bump, and then he pressed a soft kiss to her skin. She hummed under him, and when he glanced back up she was biting her lip and staring at him, her pupils dilated and her cheeks flushed. Cassian set his mouth a few millimeters from her stomach. 

“What do you think, bebe? Junia?” He pressed another kiss to her skin, but there was no response from Jyn’s belly. “Valeria?” Another kiss, and a slight shift of Jyn that looked a lot like her pressing her thighs together. He didn’t comment on it, just kissed her belly again. “Adan?” Nothing. Maybe the baby really was sleeping. Jyn certainly wasn’t though. She was looking at him like he had hung the moon, and if she kept looking at him like that he knew exactly what he wanted to do next. 

He licked his lips, watching Jyn’s eyes follow the movement of his tongue, and then he leaned down and blew the biggest raspberry he had ever blown on to the skin of her stomach. 

Jyn yelped like he had stung her, and the baby kicked so hard Cassian could see Jyn’s skin bulge. He fell back onto his back laughing while Jyn struggled to get her body to obey her orders to move and attack him. He fended off her advances easily, still chuckling, and his laughter redoubled when he got up and she started cursing at him, red faced and angry at her inability to chase him down. 

“Come pick me up Andor so I can destroy you!” She bellowed, and Cassian dodged her flailing hand, his face hurting from smiling so hard. 

“That’s not really an incentive,” he shot back, but eventually he did offer her a hand. He pulled her upright and then kept her in his arms, too happy to let her go without a kiss. Or two, as it turned out. Jyn sank into his embrace, tilting her face and opening her mouth to give him better access. The kiss went from happy and carefree to intense in the space of a breath, and Cassian wasn’t complaining. He backed her up until her shoulders hit the wall and then he held her there, pressing kisses onto her skin. He kissed his way down her neck and into the joint of her shoulder, sucking wet open mouthed kisses onto her sensitive skin there. 

“Jyn,” he murmured, bringing his head up and eyeing her like she was air and he was a drowning man. She looked similarly affected. 

“I know what I want now,” she murmured, and his brain had no clue what she was talking about. It must have shown on his face. 

“From the bet. I won. I know what I want,” she clarified, and Cassian would have given her literally anything he had just to keep doing what they were doing. 

“What?” He asked. 

“You. I want you. Please,” she murmured, and he kissed her nose, her eyelids, the corners of her mouth. 

“You have me,” he assured her, but he knew what she wanted and so he took her hand and led her across the hall to her bedroom. 

5 Weeks Later 

“Where the fuck is Cassian?” She bellowed, sweat sticking her bangs to her forehead, her knees drawn up and the ridiculous paper gown crinkling around her. The nurses positioned near her spread knees looked up at her, apparently nonplussed by a bellowing woman in labor with a bit of an anger issue. 

“Bodhi!” Jyn yelled, and her poor friend stuck his head in the doorway, his eyes trained on the ceiling so as not to risk landing anywhere… problematic. Jyn was beyond worrying about which parts of herself were hanging out for the world to see; she wanted Cassian and she wanted him now. 

“Where the fuck is he?” She asked again. 

Bodhi risked a glance down and his face when ash pale. “I - I don’t know, I’m sorry, I-” 

“Kay!” 

Bodhi beat a terrified retreat and was replaced by Kay. The analyst didn’t waver for a second, just met her eyes and blinked his owly face at her. “I do not know either, Jyn,” he said. 

“Then track the bastard down! He said he would be here! He said…” her voice dropped off and she lay her head back on the hospital bed’s pillow. She didn’t notice Kay come in, but she did notice when he put a tentative hand on her arm. Kay never touched anyone. Jyn grabbed onto his hand with her own and squeezed as she bore down through another contraction. 

“He said he would be here, Kay,” she murmured when it had passed, leaving her exhausted and leaning back on her pillows again, though she kept Kay’s hand. 

“Jyn, I have known Cassian Andor since he was eight years old. If there is one thing I know about him it is that when he says he’ll do a thing he will do it. He’ll be here,” he said. 

Jyn closed her eyes, just for a moment. “Alright Kay.”


	15. 1 Week Remaining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn cries, Cassian swears, and Kay is anxious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of the end!! This is the second to last chapter, and everything will be wrapped up in the next chapter. There maaaaay be an epilogue, but most likely we'll sort it in all in the next chapter. 
> 
> I'm so glad that so many people stuck around on this one. I'm happy with how it has turned out, and I hope you all have enjoyed it. Thank you so much for all your kind words :) 
> 
> \- AO

Cassian wasn't sure when his belongings had started to migrate into Jyn’s house, and he wasn't sure when she had determined to be okay with it, but he was standing in Jyn's bathroom and there was his toothbrush beside hers. His comb sat on her counter and when he opened the medicine cabinet there were his vitamins and migraine meds. 

“Cassian?” Jyn called from the bedroom, the room he was trying his damnedest not to think of as their room. He finished gelling in his hair and went back into the room. Jyn was laying at the most awkward angle in bed, her feet hanging over the side and her body still horizontal. Her belly protruded like a watermelon, and she was glaring at him with a combination of anger and resignation. He bit down a grin. 

“Stop that, I see you smiling,” she glowered. She held out a hand and he pulled her upright. 

“I could just not help you up you know,” he said. To his complete surprise her face crumpled and tears welled up in her eyes. She immediately covered her face with her hands but Cassian had already seen. He knelt beside the bed, his hands rubbing up and down her thighs. 

“Jyn, Jyn I didn't mean it, I'm sorry,” he murmured. So far she had been a beast about being pregnant, refusing to stop working, continuing to do everything she could on her own, and generally grumbling her way through the whole thing. She and Cassian had joked that the hormones made her forgetful and hungry, but she had had barely any mood swings or teary episodes, making this one doubly alarming. 

“You shouldn't help me,” she wept, her voice hitching on a sob that nearly broke his heart, “I'm just an inconvenience.” 

“Oh Jyn, mi amor, no, no.” He pried her hands away from her face and kissed each of her palms, trying to make her believe him. She drew her hands away though. 

“I am though! I need help with everything and you do everything for me and I'm so rude to you and why are you even here, Cassian?” 

His heart stopped, he was sure of it. “What do you mean?” He asked. This was just an overwrought outburst, it didn't mean what his mind was telling him it meant. 

“I mean with me? Why are you here, with me? You could have anyone, look at you.” She blinked watery eyes at him and hiccuped. 

A thought sprung into Cassian’s mind almost unbidden. Despite his continued pursuit of Jyn, she had made almost all the first moves in their relationship. She had curled up with him on his couch back on cards night, she had asked him to stay after the baby shower, she had kissed him first, and she had been the one to initiate them sleeping together. Cassian would have groaned if that wouldn't have made things worse. No wonder this conversation was happening now, when Jyn felt so inept that she couldn't even get out of bed without help. 

“I don't want anyone, I want you,” he said, and she sucked in a breath. She looked so nakedly vulnerable, sitting there on her bed, tear tracks down her face, that he couldn't help it. 

“I love you, Jyn, don't you know that?” He ignored her sharp gasp and forged on. He hadn't been home in more than a week. If he wasn't in this now when would he be? 

“I've loved you since you barged into my office and yelled at Kay. I love your temper, I love your smile, I love your way of thinking about things, and I love that baby,” he said, tapping on her bump, “and I know she's not mine but I'll love her anyways because she's part of you so how could I not?” He was babbling and he knew if, and Jyn was crying again but he thought this time maybe they were happier tears. 

“And I will stay here with you for as long as you'll have me, the both of you,” he finished off, and then let his heart sit there in front of him like it wasn't killing him waiting for her to say something. 

“Help me up so I can kiss you, Andor,” she ordered, and so he did. Kissing a heavily pregnant woman who was also several inches shorter than him was a fear of acrobatics, but Cassian managed it. 

“I love you too, of course I do,” she whispered, wrapped up in his arms, and Cassian thought he might just explode. 

*

“Jyn!” Bodhi was waiting for them at the office, and once Jyn had made it huffing up the stairs he took her arm and hauled her immediately into his office. Cassian just shrugged. Bodhi had been working the Senator’s people and if he finally had something to connect them to Dooku’s Separatists then maybe they could get some traction on this stagnant case. He meandered into his own office and sat down on the edge of his desk to stare at his whiteboard. 

It was covered in connections and bits of information, punctuated by far more question marks than he would like to see on there. Despite all of their pushing and bribing and trading they still hadn't figured out how the Senator was communicating with either the Trade Federation or the Separatists, a fact which bothered Kay to no end. Eventually though, eventually they would catch Palpatine and all of his companions, even if it was a bit slower than he or Mon Mothma would have preferred. 

Cassian heaved a sigh and sat down at his desk to continue pushing. Just like Jyn said, keep going until there was nowhere left to go. 

2 Weeks Later 

Cassian’s phone was buzzing in his pocket, again. He ignored it, again, and kept his gun up. He was pretty sure he knew who was calling him and why so frantically, and he wanted nothing more than to get out of here and get to Jyn. But it wouldn’t do him any good to get shot on his way, so steady and careful he went. 

The Trade Federation warehouse was huge and stuffed full to the brim with packing crates, all of which would be normal for a group that was supposed to represent a union of working people, except that these crates didn't contain normal goods. He had pried open three different boxes so far and each of them had been crammed with illegal weaponry. 

It was enough to bring down the Trade Federation, if he made it out alive. He had taken pictures of the crates showing who they belonged to and what they contained, but while he was closing his last crate he was spotted. Two Federation guards saw him pop out from between boxes and sounded the alarm, and now Cassian was dishing between rows of munitions like a rat in a maze. 

A gunshot rang out as he passed from one row to the next and he ducked down behind cover, heart beating fast. He hadn't seen whoever shot at him. He could hear them though. 

“Don't shoot the fucking crates, you moron,” one of the guards was saying. 

The other, presumably the one who had shot, revealed his level of intelligence. “Why not?” He asked. 

“Because they're full of fucking explosives,” explained the first, “and the general wants him alive.”

He raised his voice. “Did you hear that, asshole? We're not gonna hurt you.” 

“Forgive me if I don't believe that,” Cassian called back, and scrambled further away from the guards. There was a door on the side of the warehouse that he hadn't yet opened, and he was hoping it would lead outside. Cassian ducked into a nook formed by a trio of boxes and considered his options. He popped the tape on the box beside him and checked the contents - gun magazines, not incredibly useful. He did take one or two though and tuck them into his pockets, just for the sake of it, and then sliced open the next box. He got to the third box from the tower beside him when he found what he was after. 

“This’ll do just fine,” he murmured. 

Cassian kept his body bent down as low as he could as he scuttled from crate to crate, always heading towards the door he had spotted. Once he was at an intersection that looked promising, he took one of the gun magazines out of his pocket and hurled it sidelong down the path heading perpendicular to where he wanted to go, send it clattering off in the wrong direction. He heard one of the guards shout and go after it, but he was sure they were still on his tail. 

Cassian was one row of crates away from the door when he put his plan into action. He pulled out one of the flash bang grenades he had pocketed and threw it back behind him, making sure to keep his face pointed away when it went off. As soon as he heard the noise he ran to the door and dodged inside, gun up and ready for whatever was waiting for him. 

The room was mercifully empty, but unfortunately there was no easy way out. There was a small window, and a quick glance told him that the drop was manageable and that would have to do. Cassian looked around for a way to buy himself time. The room was clearly an office, equipped with a desk, bookshelf, filing cabinet and small wall safe. Blue prints and papers were scattered over the desk and more notes stuffed the bookshelf, piquing Cassian’s interest. He locked the door and grabbed the edge of the desk, hauling it over to the door to add an extra layer of difficulty to getting into the room. Then he started rifling through the papers on the desk as quickly as possible. 

The blueprints were average, and nothing stuck out to him as much as the crates of weaponry in the warehouse he had just exited. Cassian moved down and went through the drawers of the desk. He was on the last drawer, fingers flipping through file folders as fast as he could, when he found it. He stopped stock still and stared at the piece of paper in his hand. 

“No way,” he breathed. He was startled out of his reverie by pounding at the door and he looked up, his mind whirring with possibilities. He snapped a photo of the page in his hand and then headed for the window, uncaring about whatever else might be in the office. He had what he needed to sink the Senator - more than enough. Time to get out. Thankfully, the window opened without much issue and he scrambled out, dropping down to the ground and taking off running. 

Gunshots rang out behind him almost immediately. Someone inside the warehouse had alerted the rest of the guards at the site, and now they were all after him. Cassian felt like he was right back in Special Forces, running from a blown op. He kept his head down and ran, all his focus on getting off the site and back to his car. 

Then a searing pain ripped through his arm, and he stumbled. He looked down to see his jacket turning red, and some foggy part of his brain registered that he had been shot. He picked up the pace. His car was parked half a block away from the warehouse site, and he was bleeding. His breath started to hiss in his ears, but he kept going. The gunshots tapered off as soon as he reached the edge of the lot, and he slowed a little on the last leg to his car. 

The second Cassian made it to the vehicle, he was on his phone. 

“Kay,” he gasped, his breath ragged and harsh even to himself. 

“Where are you?” Kay asked, formalities as usual forgotten. He sounded stressed, Cassian registered dimly. 

“I’m on my way to the hospital,” he replied. 

“Oh good, because the baby’s going to be here any second and Jyn will disembowel you if you miss it.” 

The baby? The baby! Cassian swore a blue streak. He should have known that’s why they were calling him earlier. It should have been the first thing he thought of. 

“I’m on my way,” he said, all thoughts of Senator Palpatine momentarily forgotten. Even the sting of his bleeding arm faded as the excitement and adrenaline took over. They were about to have a baby, and he wasn’t going to miss it.


	16. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jyn screams, Cassian yells, and Kay cries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well folks, this is it. It took me longer to put out than I expected it to, but life has a way of doing that to you... I`m glad that I got it done in the end, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed putting it up for you. 
> 
> So long, and thanks for all the fish!   
> -AO

“What the fuck is her problem?” Jyn asked, pacing back and forth beside the bed. Cassian propped his head up on his arm and watched her from where he was laying, a small grin splitting his lips. 

“The baby’s?” He asked, though there wasn’t anyone else Jyn might be talking about. 

“Yes the baby’s! Why won’t she just hurry it up?” 

He knew it would get him in trouble, but Cassian’s traitorous mouth went on without him. “I’m sure she’ll come when she’s ready.” 

As expected, Jyn rounded on him, narrowing her green eyes at him. She didn’t look nearly as intimidating as she should with her belly all rounded and her need to brace her hands on her hips. Cassian tried his best to keep a smile away. 

“When she’s ready?! Are you carrying a lead weight around on your stomach? No! When she’s ready.” She shook her head and went back to pacing. 

“I’m serious, Cass, we need to get this baby out of me,” she said, staring at him like he held the answers to inducing labour. 

He sat up, knowing full well he was poking the bear. “We could try some of those suggestions on the internet. You know, especially the one where you give me a bl-” 

She moved surprisingly fast for a heavily pregnant lady, scooping the pillow off her side of the bed and hurling it at him. Cassian blocked the soft projectile easily, chuckling all the way through. 

“You would,” she muttered, and sighed. “When she’s ready. Jesus fucking Christ.” 

Cassian stood up and rounded the bed, gathering Jyn into his arms. She didn’t protest, just leaned over her bulging stomach and set her head on his shoulder. 

“It’ll be alright,” he said, and kissed her forehead. He held her for a long moment until she pulled back and looked up at him, her face a little more settled. 

“Are you going to that warehouse today?” She asked. 

Cassian let her go and walked across the room to what he had given up trying not to think of as his dresser. Jyn’s clothing mostly hung in the closet or lay scattered on the floor, and Cassian had never quite gotten over the meticulousness of the army, so his were folded nicely into an empty drawer that Jyn swore she hadn’t emptied for him. It didn’t really matter, he supposed, as he hadn’t been home in quite some time and most of his stuff had migrated to Jyn’s anyways. 

“Yeah, I’m supposed to meet a contact there. We’ll see if he has anything good for me.” He heaved a sigh. “This case is just…” 

Jyn hummed agreement. “It’ll be over soon. We’ve almost got them.” 

They dressed in comparative silence, though Cassian had to help Jyn pull her stretchy pants up over her baby bump. He held in his laugh at that under her withering glare, but it brightened his morning regardless. She saw him to the door when he was ready to go, as she was off work now and waiting for the baby. 

“What time will you be home?” She asked, and he didn’t have to pretend not to love that word coming from her. 

“Not sure. I’ll text you as soon as I know,” he said, searching for his shoes. He spotted his dress shoes and his jogging runners, but he wanted his boat shoes. They were good for running but weren’t as bulky as the joggers. They also weren’t anywhere to be found. 

“Jyn have you seen my Converse? The black ones?” He asked. She shrugged helpfully. 

“If they’re not in the entry then they’re probably at your place,” she said. 

Cassian swore and rummaged around the shoe rack anyways, finally admitting defeat and pulling on his joggers. 

“You know if I just lived here this wouldn’t be a problem, right?” He muttered, before he realized what he had said and glanced up at Jyn from under his hair. She didn’t look nearly as put out as he would have guessed; instead her face held a rosy blush and she was biting her lip. 

“Well you could just bring the rest of your stuff over, if you wanted,” she replied, and Cassian stared at her openly. 

“Really?” 

She shrugged again, as if it were no big deal and they hadn’t spent the last months overcoming both of their intimacy issues. Cassian grinned wide and stood up, swooping in to kiss her quickly. He leant back over and kissed her baby bump too, eliciting a giggle from Jyn and a kick from the baby. 

“I love you. I love you too, niña. We’ll talk about this later,” he promised, unable to quite wipe the smile off his face. Jyn was smiling too, though she kept biting her lip and he could tell she was still a little nervous. They would talk about it later though, and it would all work out. It was the first time Cassian could remember having faith in a relationship, but he had faith in he and Jyn.

*

Jyn 

“Another one Kay!” Jyn yelled, pausing in her pacing to lean on the wall and clench her way through a contraction that had her gritting her teeth and trying to remember how to breathe. 

“Ten minutes forty two seconds,” Kay responded promptly from his lair in the back of the office. “That is an increase of fifteen percent since we timed them an hour ago.” 

“Oh good. So at this rate it’ll only be another couple hours before I can go to the hospital,” Jyn grumbled. She had read somewhere that a person’s first baby usually had a longer labour, but she had been hoping hers would be nice and quick. Defy the odds, that kind of thing. Unfortunately, it seemed that the baby was going to be just as stubborn about this as she was about actually coming on time. 

“At least,” Kay replied blithely. 

“Are you sure we shouldn’t go sooner?” Bodhi asked from one of the lobby chairs. He looked paler than Jyn felt, and she wondered if he was asking more for himself than for her. 

As soon as her contractions had started a couple hours previously, and Jyn had waited long enough to figure it wasn’t those inestimably asshole-ish Braxton Hicks contractions, she had picked up the baby bag she and Cassian had had packed by their door for the past week and called a cab to take her to the office. She had tried calling Cassian’s cell a few times, but he wasn’t picking up and Jyn’s immediate next thought was Kay. She wasn’t sure why, something about how level-headed he always was and how meticulous, but she knew Kay would take it all in stride. Bodhi, on the other hand, not so much. 

“I’m fine, Bodhi. Worst comes to worst she’ll pop out on the carpet,” Jyn joked. Bodhi’s face blanched further and he looked queasy. 

“At this point Jyn’s cervix will be less than fifty percent dilated. Going to the hospital would be premature and they would likely send her back out,” Kay commented, emerging from his den. Both Jyn and Bodhi stared at him. 

“I’m not sure how I feel about you thinking about my cervix,” Jyn said, and even Bodhi cracked a small smile at that. Kay didn’t, just shrugged. 

“It’s only logical to track your progression.” 

Jyn was on the verge of a snappy response when another contraction hit her, hard enough to make her reach for the edge of her desk. Kay frowned at her. 

“Another?” He asked. She nodded, finding it hard to speak through this one. It lasted a little longer, too, though she wondered if that was just because she was in the middle of it. She didn’t have to wonder for long. 

“Forty three seconds. That is substantially longer, and the interval has shortened to… six minutes,” Kay murmured, checking times on his phone. “I may need to rethink my no hospitalization just yet stance.” 

Jyn just grimaced at him. Her legs felt weak, and she kept impulsively checking her phone for signs of life from Cassian. She knew he was probably just busy on the job and hadn’t thought to check his messages, but a little part of her was convinced that he knew what was going on in the office and was avoiding her. He had promised, after all… 

“He’ll be here soon,” Bodhi assured her, seeing her check her phone one more time. Jyn bit her lip but nodded, not wanting to let out her many insecurities as to why Cassian might not be there. She was saved from answering by yet another contraction, and Kay was already dialing his phone by the time she was finished breathing through it. 

“Yes, hello, this is Kay Tuesso calling on behalf of Miss Jyn Erso. We will be arriving shortly as Miss Erso is in labour, and her contractions are increasing exponentially in frequency and duration,” he said to the poor receptionist on the other end, who Jyn imagined was now stuttering and flailing to figure out how to deal with someone like Kay. Kay listened to her, his eyes shuttling back and forth as he processed. 

“I understand perfectly. Her last three contractions were ten minutes forty three seconds, then six minutes, then four minutes. I believe four minutes is within normal parameters to go to hospital?” He listened again. Bodhi and Jyn just watched, mouths slightly agape. 

“I see. Average duration is forty seconds currently. It will take us approximately thirty minutes to reach the hospital by taxi, so we should be well within the range by then. If you’ll have a room ready, that would be best, I should think.” 

This time the eyes narrowed slightly and he began to blink in rapid succession, as he usually did when things weren’t quite lining up as he imagined they logically should.

“Unacceptable. Miss Erso will require a private room,” he replied to whatever the person on the other end had said. Jyn waved at Kay, trying to signal to him that a private room was not needed - not to mention far above her budget - but he took no notice. 

“Excellent. Thank you. Our arrival is imminent.” He hung up like that was a socially acceptable way to leave a conversation, and briskly looked at Jyn and Bodhi, who were still just staring at him. 

“Shall we?” He asked, completely nonplussed. Jyn decided to take a page from his books and gripped Bodhi by the arm, pulling him to his feet. 

“Come on, Rook, let’s get you to somewhere where you can pass out surrounded by doctors,” she said. 

*

“Where the fuck is Cassian?” She bellowed, sweat sticking her bangs to her forehead, her knees drawn up and the ridiculous paper gown crinkling around her. The nurses positioned near her spread knees looked up at her, apparently nonplussed by a bellowing woman in labor with a bit of an anger issue. 

“Bodhi!” Jyn yelled, and her poor friend stuck his head in the doorway, his eyes trained on the ceiling so as not to risk landing anywhere… problematic. Jyn was beyond worrying about which parts of herself were hanging out for the world to see; she wanted Cassian and she wanted him now. 

“Where the fuck is he?” She asked again. 

Bodhi risked a glance down and his face when ash pale. “I - I don’t know, I’m sorry, I-” 

“Kay!” 

Bodhi beat a terrified retreat and was replaced by Kay. The analyst didn’t waver for a second, just met her eyes and blinked his owly face at her. “I do not know either, Jyn,” he said. 

“Then track the bastard down! He said he would be here! He said…” her voice dropped off and she lay her head back on the hospital bed’s pillow. She didn’t notice Kay come in, but she did notice when he put a tentative hand on her arm. Kay never touched anyone. Jyn grabbed onto his hand with her own and squeezed as she bore down through another contraction. 

“He said he would be here, Kay,” she murmured when it had passed, leaving her exhausted and leaning back on her pillows again, though she kept Kay’s hand. 

“Jyn, I have known Cassian Andor since he was eight years old. If there is one thing I know about him it is that when he says he’ll do a thing he will do it. He’ll be here,” he said. 

Jyn closed her eyes, just for a moment. “Alright Kay.” 

Only moments later, as Jyn was pushing through another contraction with her eyes shut and teeth clenched, there was a commotion in the hall. Several someones were shouting, yelling for a nurse and for everyone to calm down and then someone was yelling Jyn’s name. She knew that voice. She squeaked through the last of her contraction and heaved a deep breath. 

“Cassian?!” 

He burst through the door. Jyn registered his wild eyes, disheveled hair, and obvious state of upheaval, and then she registered the trickle of bright red blood on his arm. 

“Where were you?!” She bellowed. “What the hell happened to your arm?” 

One of the people by her knees stood up and shifted slightly in front of Jyn’s body. “You can’t be in here!” She said, voice bright with alarm. 

“He stays!” Jyn directed that at the nurse, who thankfully sat down. Cassian scrabbled around the bed and came to clutch Jyn’s other hand, his breath coming hard and his eyes no less wide for having seen her now. 

“Are you alright? Is the baby alright? I’m so sorry,” he started, but Jyn was stopped from responding by another contraction. She squeezed his hand, and Kay’s which was still clenched in her other fist, and bore down. 

“I’ll just-” Kay tried to extricate himself as the contraction passed and Jyn lay back on her bed, sweating and panting. 

“You’ll stay right here,” Jyn ordered. Kay raised his long eyebrows at her. 

“Please,” she amended. A look passed between them and Jyn didn’t know how to put into words everything she was feeling. All she knew was that Kay had been the only calm person throughout this process, and had a way of taking everything in stride that Jyn found reassuring. He was dour about it, sure, but Kay always got it done. She didn’t know if he could read that on her face, but he relented and blinked down at her. 

“Very well. By my estimation there is a seventy five percent likelihood that the baby will be born in the next twenty minutes anyways,” he said. 

Jyn nodded. She could feel the baby’s head pressing against her cervix. She settled back on her bed and tried to catch her breath. 

“You need medical attention,” the nurse said, peeling Cassian’s sleeve up from his wrist. His arm was coated in blood from a seeping wound in his bicep. Jyn knew the look of bullet holes when she saw them. 

“You were shot,” she accused. 

Cassian looked inexplicably guilty. “Only a little.” 

“We need to clean you up,” the nurse said again, but Cassian was already shaking his head before she even finished the sentence. 

“Then we do it here. I'm not leaving.” 

The nurse’s lips thinned as she pursed them but she nodded. “Fine,” she said, then headed to the door. She stuck her head out into the hall and yelled for assistance. Jyn, meanwhile, was feeling the buildup to another contraction. 

“Alright,” said the doctor between her feet, “This is going to be a push. Just follow your body’s lead, it knows what to do.” 

Regularly, Jyn would have a scathing reply to that hippy-dippy bullshit, but her breath was caught in her throat and she was struck by the overpowering urge to push. She bore down, clenching onto Cassian and Kay’s hands hard enough that she was sure kay at least was going to mention it later, but she couldn’t particularly bring herself to care.

“Good job,” the doctor said, “You’re almost there. One more good push and the baby will crown.” 

Jyn flopped back on her pillows. She flapped a limp hand at Cassian’s worried glance, but she was busy trying to catch her breath and brace for the next bit push. The nurse, meanwhile, came back into the room with another person and a cart full of supplies. They came around the bed and started cleaning up Cassian’s arm. 

“Okay, here we go. One big push, Jyn,” the doctor said, and Jyn bore down. She was pretty sure her hormones took over at that point, because looking back on it the next ten or so minutes was just a blur of action and pain. But all of that commotion crystallized into a single moment when they lifted the baby up, squalling, pink, and covered in goop, and Jyn saw her for the first time. The doctor suctioned the fluid out of the baby’s nose and mouth, then wrapped her in a blanket and came up the bedside. She set the baby down on Jyn’s chest, and Jyn realized she was crying. 

The baby’s head was a bit cone shaped from being squeezed out, like yogurt from a tube, and she was still rather covered in blood and mucus, but she was the sweetest thing Jyn had ever seen in her life. She had black, fuzzy hair, the tiniest nose, and she was crying like she had lungs three times her size. Jyn smiled through her tears and wrapped her arms around her daughter. 

“Hi baby,” she whispered. A thought struck her and she looked up at Cassian. 

“I want to name her Kaylee,” she said. Cassian’s eyebrows flew up and she distantly realized that he was crying too. Kay made a shocked noise from her other side. 

“Kaylee?” Cassian repeated. 

“Yes. If it weren’t for Kay... we never would have met, and I wouldn’t have been able to save you, and I probably wouldn’t have made it here today, and -” 

Cassian cut her off. “It’s perfect,” he said. Jyn smiled and they shared a look so full of love she had to wonder what she had done to deserve all of this. A strange half-choked noise distracted them a moment later. 

Kay Tuesso had tears in his eyes. He was trying to hide them, but they were there, and he wore his emotions plain as day. 

“I don’t… This was very unexpected,” he finally said, managing to speak around an obvious lump in his throat. 

“You don’t need to say anything,” Jyn smiled. 

“I suppose her wildness will now reflect directly on me, won’t it,” Kay murmured, and Jyn was back to glowering at him. 

“That’s why I told you not to say anything,” she groused. Cassian laughed, and a second later both she and Kay joined him. 

*

+6 weeks

Kay and the baby were damn near inseparable, Cassian thought, watching his friend play with the little girl. Kaylee was still tiny, her little fists barely able to wrap around the lanky man’s finger, but as soon as Kay reached their house he would pick up the baby and he wouldn’t put her down until it was time for him to leave. 

Cassian never would have expected it. He had mostly assumed that Kay would be standoffish at best, watching the baby from afar and remarking on her growth or perceived intelligence. Instead, he seemed changed - Kaylee smiled when she saw him, and reached her little hands for him, and he was always there to take her. Jyn was just as surprised by it as Cassian, but she just smiled a calm smile and let their owly friend hold the little girl as much as he wanted. 

“This is an oblong,” Kay was explaining gravely, pointing at the shape Kaylee was trying to fit into her mouth, “And it should fit in one of these holes. Kaylee patently ignored him, just smiling and gumming away on the wooden block. Kay just sighed. “This is a rectangular prism,” he started, pointing at the next block, and when he picked it up Kaylee traded for her slightly damp oval. She promptly stuck the rectangle in her mouth too. Kay sighed again, and Cassian chuckled.

Cassian was interrupted in his observing by Jyn tucking herself in against his side, finally back from her hostessing duties. They were hosting their friends at their apartment to celebrate Cassian finally having completely moved in, and to meet the baby. 

“How’re you doing?” Jyn asked, peering up at him. She looked happy, he noted, and he was sure he looked the same. 

“Never better,” he replied, and he knew in his bones that it was true.


End file.
